
Class. 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



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PIONEER 



History Stories. 



FOR THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES. 



FIRST SB.RIB.S. 






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PIONEER 



History Stories 



FOR THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES. 



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FIRST SRRIRS. 



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C;'ArMeMURRY, Ph. D., (Halle a. S.) 



State Normal School, 

WINONA, MINN. 



Copyrighted 1891, by the author. 



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WINONA, MINN. 

Jones & Kroeger, Printers, 

1891. 



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PIONEER HISTORY STORIES. 



The history found in the pioneer stories constitutes the 
first stages of an unbroken series of history studies, begin- 
ning in the latter part of the third grade and ending in the 
eighth grade. Beginning with the best early historical and 
biographical narratives of the home state, we advance to the 
neighboring parts of the country, to the south, east and west, 
until the main lines of pioneer life and the leading characters 
of pioneer history in the United States have been treated. 

In order to secure stories which are really adapted to 
children of this age, certain limits in their selection must be 
observed. First, they must be chiefly biographical to insure 
simplicity and interest. Secondly, the conditions of society 
should be simple and primitive, easily surveyed and compre- 
hended. This condition excludes stories taken from the 
periods of later colonial history, and from the period of the 
revolution and of the civil war. The whole situation of a story, 
its historical setting, should be transparent to the mind of 
children. Thirdly, they should exhibit the lives of men of 
high character and purpose, such as impress the mind with 
generous thoughts. In the main therefore, these narratives 
must be selected from the narrow field of exploration and 
first settlement, before society had assumed complex forms; 
while commerce, manner of living and government were still 
in their simplest beginnings. 

In any given part of the country, as in Massachusetts or 
California, the period of exploration and pioneer life is brief; 



4 PIONEEE HISTORY STORIES. 

but taking the history of the United States and of North 
America as a whole, this pioneer period has lasted from the 
time of Columbus up almost to the present. In all its stages, 
it has been a period of hardship and danger, calling out the 
most adventurous spirits and putting men of the greatest 
physical and moral calibre under the necessity of exhibiting 
in bold relief, their individual traits. Such men were Boone, 
La Salle, Penn, Clarke and Lincoln. 

No other country has ever had such a pioneer history, 
such a race of men, as the early Friends, the Virginians, the 
Yankees and Scotch-Irish, pushing westward to subdue and 
civilize a continent. If the Romans by studying their 
ancestral and traditional history could train up such men as 
Cinciunatus, Regulus and Scipio, how important to nurture 
our children upon the tough and sinewy example of Free- 
mont, Washington, Robertson, Smith and Champlain! For 
moral educative purposes there is no history in the world so 
valuable as the biographies of our sturdy pioneers. 

The series of stories which we design chiefly for the 
fourth and fifth grades, but partly also for the third, are as 
follows. 

1. Joliet and Marquette. First discovery of the Up- 
per Mississippi and their journey upon it. 

2. Hennepin. Exploration of the Upper Mississippi 
and the land of the warlike Sioux. Hennepin's capture and 
treatment by the Indians. His hardships and escape. 

3. La Salle. Ft. Frontenac, Niagara. Building a ship 
to navigate Lake Erie, Lake Huron, &c. Trip over the lakes. 
From St. Joseph to the Illinois and Peoria. His plan of 
taking possession of the Mississippi valley for the French. 
The fur trade. 

4. The Sioux Massacre. Bad treatment of Indians 
by the whites. Indian secresy and revenge. Flight of the 
fugitives from the valley of the Minnesota river. Punish- 
ment of the Indians. 

5. Lincoln. Early life and surroundings in Kentucky, 



PIONEEll HISTOEY STORIES. 5 

Indiana and Illinois. Poor farm boy. Going down the 
Mississippi in a flat boat. Heading and study. 

6. G. R. Clarke. Life among the Kentucky backwoods- 
men. Indian outrages from the northwest. Plan to capture 
Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Descent of the Ohio from Pitts- 
burg with a small army. Hardships and perseverance. 
Capture of Kaskaskia and Yincenues. Treating with the 
Indians. 

7. Boone. Crossing the mountains from North Carolina. 
Laying out a road. Boonsborough. Capture by the Indians. 
Life among them and escape. Attack upon Boonsborough. 
Simon Kenton, the friend of Boone. 

8. Robertson. Settlement in Watauga. Visit to hos- 
tile Indians. Journey to the Cumberland. Journey in boats 
down the Tennessee river and up the Cumberland. Indian 
troubles. 

9. Marietta and Cincinnati. First trip of pioneers 
across the mountains and down the Ohio in boats. The fort 
at Marietta. First settlers of Cincinnati. Trouble with Indians. 

10. La Salle. Trip down the Mississippi and return. 
Voyage from France to Texas. Death. 

11. De Soto. Voyage from Cuba. Capture of an Indian 
village. Wading the swamps. Indian fights. Discovery of 
the Mississippi. Wanderings west of it. Hunting gold. 
Dentil. Escape of the remainder. 

12. Early steamboat life on the Mississippi. Fur 
trade. Pork and corn and peltries in flat boats. Cotton and 
sugar. Boats. New Orleans. 

13. Washington. Life on a farm and at school. Sur- 
veying in Western Virginia. Trip across the mountains to 
see the Fi-ench. 

14. John Smith. Exploring Virginia. Capture by 
Indians and treatment. Smith as Governor. 

15. William Penn. Meeting the Indians. Founding 
Philadelphia. 

16. Hudson. Trip up the river. His other voyages. 



6 PIONEEE HISTORY STORIES. 

17. Ohamplain. Trip up Lake Cbamplain and attack 
upon the Iroquois. Leads a second party against the Iro- 
quois. 

18. Iroquois. Their long expeditions, wars, and home 
among the lakes. 

19. The Erie Canal. Clinton. Difficulties. Impor- 
tance of the canal in early history and emigration. 

20. Smith and Gosnold. Exploring the coast of New 
England. 

21. Maine. Attempted settlement. Hard winter. 

22. Plymouth. Story of the Puritans. 

23. Raleigh. Attempted settlements in Carolina. 

24. DeLeon. Discovery of Florida. Settlement at 
St. Augustine. 

25. Drake. Yoyage around the world. Captures. In 
California. Crossing the Pacific. Arrival at home. 

26. Lewis and Clark. Voyage up the Missouri river. 
Crossing the Eocky Mountains and return. 

27. Fremont. Clim])ing Fremont's peak. Passing the 
canon of the Platte. 

28. Fremont. Exploring Salt Lake and the Great 
Basin. Crossing the Sierra Nevada in winter. 

29. Crossing the Plains and Mountains to California 
in 1849. 

30. Columbus. Life and undertakings. 

31. Magellan. Voyage around the world. 



MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 



MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 



In departing so widely from establislied usage as to make 
systematic history study a prominent part of the course for 
elementary grades, a few words of explanation are necessary. 
Should history be regularly taught in fourth and fifth grades? 
We can only suggest the reasons for the answer. All studies 
may be divided into two classes (according to Herbart) the 
historical and the natural science. The one refers to man 
the other to nature apart from man. It is our conviction 
that as the child begins both these before entering school, so 
it should pursue them continuously through its whole school 
course. History has to do with human actions and the rela- 
tions of people to each other, and becomes thus the basis of 
morals, furnishing the concrete materials upon which moral 
judgments are developed. Natural science, on the other 
hand, has to do with the practical realities of life so far as 
they bear upon man's relation to nature. 

To definitely explain and justify this general statement 
made above, we will attempt briefly to answer the following 
questions: 

1. Does history furnish materials that are adapted to 
the understanding and interest of children in the fourth and 
fifth grades? 

2. Do these materials supply instructive and useful 
facts, that will also aid future history study? 

3. Is the moral effect of a proper teaching of these 
materials a clear and positive benefit? 



8 MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 

First. Are there first-class history materials that are 
specially adapted to kindle the interest of children? 

We are well aware that biography is the most interesting 
form of history, especially to children. Now, that kind of 
biography that appeals most strongly to children between 
the ages of eight and twelve, is that which is cast in a heroic 
mold. Not the lives of statesmen, orators or scientists, but 
of heroes, of men who have shown power and skill and good- 
ness in an age when men battled single handed or in small 
numbers against surrounding dangers. 

So far as the schools are concerned, the fact has been 
heretofore overlooked, that in the pioneer history of the 
United States we have a heroic age of surprising interest. 
A collection of the best pioneer biographies of our country 
would be remarkably rich in stirring events, in deeds of for- 
titude and nobility which will thrill all the future Avitli their 
moral worth. These stories are simple, biographical and in- 
teresting, concrete and true to life. We believe that there is 
an era in child life that corresponds to the era of pioneer 
life in the history of men. At this time these stirring, true 
stories of strong men and women, of difficult enterprises, are 
able to awaken the deep and permanent interest of children. 
For they have the ring of true metal in them that will pass 
current with all men in all ages. Our history, which is so 
rich in the finest and most inspiring educative materials, has 
consisted too much heretofore in the study of skeleton out- 
lines, in a memorizing of important events and of chrono- 
logical tables. All this has often tended to dull the interest 
in history, or even to create a distaste for it. Even when a 
topical method has been followed, which also looks into the 
causes and results of important events, the best results could 
not be secured because the interest of children in the con- 
crete biographical materials adapted to them was not devel- 
oped in the earlier grades. The pioneer stories approach 
our history from its most attractive side, and not only inter- 
est for the time being, but create a taste for the study of 



MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 9 

leading men and important events in the formative period of 
our history. 

Second. Are these history stories instructive, and do 
they collect materials of value for later history work? 

It has been the tendency of history study in recent years 
to reduce knowledge of this kind to a condensed form and 
swallow it in that condition. There has been too much faith 
in the power of the mind to assimilate the condensed state- 
ments and generalizations of brief compendiums of history. 
But it is no more true in history than in natural science that 
the mind can dispense with the concrete interesting facts, 
the details, upon which these general statements have been 
rested, or out of which they have been inferred. By taking 
history early in its simple concrete details, we are gathering 
just that kind of materials which will be indispensable to 
later study. 

Again, in pioneer history a few very important events 
which have had a formative influence upon all our later his- 
tory are brought out with great distinctness; e. g. the efforts 
of the French to get possession of the St. Lawrence and of 
the Mississippi valley; later the attempt of the British to do 
the same thing, and the conflict of these two European 
powers upon our soil; later still, the success of the Ken- 
tuckyans in repelling the British and Indians, and in win- 
ning for the colonies the great northwest — Illinois, Indiana, etc. 

Again, Indian life with its manners, habits and strong 
contrasts to civilized life, in its relations of peace and war 
with the whites, is revealed in its actual colors. 

Further, the study of pioneer life in these concrete forms 
throws into dark relief the difficuUies in a primitive society 
of overcoming the obstacles in nature. In our present con- 
dition of society it is hard for us to realize what toil and 
etfort have been expended in securing our commonest bless- 
ings, e. g. roads and bridges, security from violence, tools and 
machines, schools and other advantages. Pioneer life reveals 
with great distinctness, the intense difficulties which beset 



10 MEEITS OF THE HISTOEY STOKIES. 

men in the earliest stage in that growth upwards into our 
present civilization. It is a lesson well worth learning. 
Webster once said that the people of the colonies were 
trained to virtue in the strict school of adversity. It is well 
for the children to grow up in the knowledge that our pres- 
ent material and educational advantages have been secured 
by infinite toil. Still farther, the greatest lesson of all 
history, apart from its moral effect, is to discover how, out of 
simple early conditions, step by stej) our present society and 
government have grown. And there is no place where the 
simple foundations upon which Americans have built their 
institutions are seen with such clearness as in pioneer life. 

Third. Is the moral benefit of these studies clear and 
positive? As a means of moral education, the history of 
pioneer life is offered with great confidence. Moral impulses 
and dispositions are cultivated by giving the ripening mind 
of the child a chance to admire and approve right actions in 
others. These biographies are designed, in short, as a series 
of object lessons in character and morals. In studying the 
lives of men, we pass moral judgments, and pass them with 
fervor. The feelings and incentives aroused, (especially if 
their daily practical bearings are kept in mind, ) pass over 
into moral convictions, which infiueuce our later actions. 
By a good selection of intrinsically valuable history stories, 
which create a strong personal interest, it is possible under 
good instruction to exert a direct moral influence in the 
formation of character in pupils. We have thus far dis- 
cussed the primary merits of the pioneer history stories as 
an independent branch of study. They have also important 
relations to geography, language and natural science, Avhich 
we will next consider. 

.1. INCIDENTAL STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY. 

Stories which involve journeys over mountains, lakes^ 
rivers and fails, through river valleys and canons, touch in 
the most concrete and interesting manner upon a great 



MERITS OF THE HISTOllY STORIES. 11 

variety of geographical topics, such as forests, deserts, 
prairies, mountain regions, varieties of climate, hot or cold, 
wet or dry, native products and animals, game, fruit, etc. 
When we remember that the history stories, located along 
the river courses and in mountain districts, are designed to 
precede and pave the way for the geography of those very 
regions, it is clear that they open the door to geography 
study from an interesting side. The great routes of present 
traffic upon rivers and lakes and across both the Alleghanies 
and Rockies are in many cases the same as those laid out by 
the early pioneers. In spite of railroads, the Mississippi 
and the St. Lawrence are still great factors in internal 
commerce. 

Again, the variety of races on this continent is best 
understood in connection with the early settlements and in 
the names of rivers, cities, lakes and mountains, which the 
early settlers first named. The Indians, French, Spanish, 
English and Negroes, besides the later Germans and Scan- 
danaviaus who found a home in different parts of our coun- 
try, and now constitute our population, are introduced in 
their natural and native aspect. The study of geographical 
names alone, in connection with early settlers, is of much 
interest. For example, in Minnesota: St. Paul, St. Peter, 
Duluth, Winona, Minnehaha, New Ulm, etc. 

Finally, the historical stories display the regions of North 
America in their original uncultivated state, with all the 
charm of a new world, the geography which immediately 
follows describes them as they now are, with cities, railroads 
and farms. The contrast is not only interesting but suggests 
a study of the intervening history and commercial growth. 

2. RELATION TO LANGUAGE LESSONS. 

The work upon the stories will take the place of a good 
part of the oral and written language lessons in these grades, 
not indeed of any part of technical grammar, for of that we 
have little below the sixth i>:rade. The stories should be 



12 MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 

reproduced orally by the children. Since they are interest- 
ing, connected narratives, they stimulate a child to contin- 
uous speech. Not broken, disjointed and meaningless sen- 
tences, but an interesting series of thoughts calling for 
correct expression. There is probably no kind of oral 
language work so well adapted, as the stories, to cultivate 
correct and independent speech. Children who are carefully 
trained in this kind of expression acquire a surprising clear- 
ness and correctness of oral narrative. 

The stories are equally valuable for written work. The 
same things which have been reproduced orally by the chil- 
dren may be written out in short compositions, with proper 
care as to spelling, paragraphing, capitals and punctuation. 

3. RELATION TO GENERAL SCIENCE LESSONS. 

General science lessons in these grades (from third to sixth 
inclusive) should have to do with the plants and animals, 
rocks and soil, and the products, tools and mechanical ap- 
pliances which children meet with first about home, and later 
in other parts of the United States. Most of the topics of 
such general science lessons are selected from the concrete 
materials of botany, zoology, geology, chemistry and physics, 
some also from astronomy and physiology. 

The pioneer stories touch incidentally upon a large num- 
ber of native plants and animals which ought to receive in 
natural science lessons a more detailed treatment than either 
the history stories or geography can give them. For example, 
these stories call attention to the buffalo, beaver, otter, deer, 
bear, wild turkey, wild geese and ducks, cat-fish, sword-fish, 
squirrels, jaguar, etc., to the wild rice, nuts and roots, Indian 
corn, tobacco, birch tree, oak, hickory, grapes, huckleberries, 
etc. The stories have much also to do with devices for 
building houses, forts and bridges, with boats, ferries, pack 
saddles, surveying instruments, compass, telescope, barom- 
eter, thermometer, and their uses. Nearly all these topics 
are interesting and valuable, and call for more detailed 



MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 15 

description and explanation than tlie stories themselves can 
give. In other words, the stories supply an abundance of 
excellent topics for general science lessons. Besides those 
mentioned, the processes of making clothing, of weaving, 
spinning, and tanning furs and skins, the making of soap, 
gunpowder, bullets and firearms, the uses of salt, lead, iron 
and coal — all suggest good topics for general lessons. 

It is clear that besides their independent value, the pio- 
neer stories have important relations to geography, language 
lessons and to natural science studies in these grades. It is 
important to emphasize these relations and connecting links 
between studies, because, first, it greatly increases our inter- 
est in a subject to see its bearings upon other branches of 
study; second, it cultivates the habit of tracing out the 
casual relations and analogies between studies, with the 
thoughtful survey of a subject from various sides; and third, 
it binds together the different studies so that the mind can 
pass from one to another along familiar lines. In short, 
tracing and fixing these relations leads to a concentration of 
knowledge around a central subject matter. The knowledge 
of a variety of subjects, forms in this way a complete unit, 
and the mind's control over them all has been strengthened 
by bringing them all into close association. 

In reading the stories in the class, the scenes should 
stand out with the vividness of real life. The enthusiasm 
of the teacher and the imagination of children should picture 
them in real colors. This is no impossible requirement, for 
the stories themselves are of great interest, and the teacher 
and pupils have only to fill themselves with the facts and 
situations, live through the scenes again, and show their 
mastery of the story by a simple logical arrangement of 
topics and minor points. The narrative of the children in 
reproducing, must be systematic and clear, advancing point 
by point. The highest aim of the history stories is measured 
by their moral, character-building effect. To bring this out 
requires good teaching. Still there is no need of moralizing 



14 



MERITS OF THE HISTORY STORIES. 



or of dwelling at length on the moral content. The main 
purpose should be to bring out the moral judgments with 
clearness and fervor. After the narrative, the teacher should 
be able, by a few questions, to call out clearly the motives of 
the actors and to lead to a correct and decisive judgment as 
to their moral quality, right or wrong. To dwell long upon 
it or to try to analyze it would spoil the effect. 




JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 15 



JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 



[authority, PARKMAN'S la SALLE. ] 



Joliet was a fur-trader who was sent by the governor of 
Canada in 1673 to discover the Mississippi river. The 
French traders and missionaries had heard of a great river 
westward from Lake Michigan, but no white man had seen 
it. Joliet went up the St. Lawrence and the lakes till he 
reached Point St. Ignace, on the north side of the Strait of 
Mackinac. Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, was Avaiting to 
join him at Point St. Ignace, and the two men prepared for 
their voyage of discovery. Marquette had been living at the 
strait two years, preaching to some Huron and Ottawa 
Indians who lived there. He had a mission house, a chapel, 
and a palisade around both. Near by were the Indian 
villages of bark huts. The fur traders who roamed the 
woods for skins and furs often met here to barter with the 
Indians. 

Joliet and Marquette selected five men to go with them, 
and fitted up two birch-bark canoes, putting in a supply of 
smoked meat and Indian corn. Having made inquiries of 
the Indians about the best route, they started on the 17th of 
May. Paddling the canoes, they kept along the northern 
shore, landing each evening to camp and to build a fire in 
the edge of the forest. Having reached the Menominee 



16 JOLIET AND MAKQUETTE. 

river they went np the stream to a village of the Menominee 
or Wild-rice Indians. These Indians, on hearing their pur- 
pose to go in search of the great river, tried to discourage 
them, saying that the tribes on the river were savage and 
would kill them, that there was a monster in the stream that 
would swallow up their boat and men, and that the river 
became hot to the south. But the travelers, refusing to 
listen to these stories, went on to Green Bay, where they 
found a mission, and then entered Fox river. It was severe 
labor to drag the boats up the long, steep rapids, but they 
reached Lake Winnebago and then the river to the west. The 
river wound its way among swamps of wild rice upon which 
many water fowls were feeding. They reached an Indian 
town built upon a high hill with many prairies and woods in 
sight. Marquette was delighted to find a cross standing in 
the middle of the place, "decorated with a number of dressed 
deer skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which they had 
hung upon it as an offering to the great Manitou of the 
French." 

Calling a council of the Indian chiefs, they asked for 
guides to the Mississippi. The Indians gave them two 
guides, and after entertaining them, all the people came 
down to the shore to see them depart. The guides pointed 
out the way through winding currents and swamps of wild 
rice, till they reached the portage. Carrying their canoes a 
mile and a half across the prairie and marshes, they launched 
them in the Wisconsin, and began the voyage into an un- 
known world. Perhaps they would reach the Pacific ocean, 
or the Gulf of Mexico, or California. They glided down 
the valley of the Wisconsin, viewing the islands, forests and 
bluffs. Landing in the evening, they usually kindled a fire, 
turned the boats upside down, roasted their meat before the 
fire, and after smoking their pipes, lay down to rest, upon 
skins and blankets. 

About the middle of June they were filled with joy by 
the sight of the current of the Mississippi, into which they 



JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 17 

steered tlieir little bocats. Floating down the Mississippi, 
they were surprised at a huge cat-fish dashiug against the 
side of the boat, and were reminded of the Indian story of 
the n:onster. Drawing in their fish-net oue day, they saw in 
it a strange kind of fish now called the sword-fish. Later on 
they saw great herds of buffalo, with their shaggy manes, 
grazing on the wide prairies. Fearing they might meet 
savage tribes, they no longer landed at night, but anchored 
their boat in the river, and chose one to guard while the 
others slept. For two weeks they had met no one and had 
seen no signs of Indians. But one day they saw foot-prints 
in the mud on the western bank, and a path leading up to 
the prairies. Joliet and Marquette decided to follow this 
path, leaving the five men to guard the boats. It was a 
pleasant day, and the two men followed the path for several 
miles across the prairies and through the woods till they 
came in sight of a village, on the bank of a river. They 
were not noticed, though they could hear the voices of the 
Indians talking in the village. Standing out in full view, 
they shouted to attract attention, and great was the stir in 
the village when the Indians began to crowd out to see the 
strangers. Four chief men soon came forward, holding the 
peace pipe, decorated with feathers. The Frenchmen were 
pleased to see the Indians wearing articles of French cloth, 
and thought they must be friendly. Being asked who they 
were, the Indians replied that they were the Illinois, and 
offered the peace pipe. After smoking it, they entered the 
village together. Here the chief did them honor in a strange 
manner. Standing naked in his tent door, he raised both 
hands to shield his eyes, and said: "Frenchmen, how bright 
the sun shines when you come to visit us! All our village 
awaits you, and you shall enter our wigwams in peace." 
They were then led into the smoky wigwam, crowded with 
Indians, who stared at them in silence. Having smoked with 
the chiefs and old men, they were invited to visit the great 
chief of all the Illinois, at one of the villages they had seen 



18 JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 

in the distance; and thither they proceeded, followed by a 
throng of warriors, squaws and children. On arriving there 
they were forced to smoke again and listen to a speech of 
welcome from the great chief, who delivered it standing be- 
tween two old men, naked like himself. Marquette, who 
could speak in the Indian language, first said that he had 
come to them as a messenger from God, whom they ought to 
obey, then told them of Frontenac, the governor of Canada, 
and asked them about the Mississippi river and the tribes 
along its banks. The chief replied, saying, they were wel- 
come, " that their presence added flavor to his tobacco, made 
the river more calm and the sky more blue, and the earth more 
beautiful." In conclusion he gave them a slave and asked 
them to give up their purpose of going down the Mississippi. 

A feast of four courses now followed. First a wooden 
bowl full of a porridge of Indian meal, boiled with grease, 
was set before the guests, and an Indian fed them like little 
children, with a large spoon. Then came a platter of fish, 
and the same man carefully removed the bones with his 
fingers, and blowing on the morsels to cool them, placed them 
in the mouths of the two Frenchmen. A large dog, killed 
and cooked for the occasion, was next placed before them. 
But their appetites were not strong enough for this and soon 
it was removed for a dish of fat buffalo meat, which ended 
the feast. The crowd having scattered, buffalo robes Avere 
spread on the ground and the Frenchmen slept there for the 
night. In the morning the chief, with six hundred of his 
tribe led them to their canoes and bade -them a friendly 
farewell. 

Drifting slowly doAvn the great river, they passed the 
mouth of the Illinois river and saw below the line of rocks, 
called by some the ruined castles. Below this they saw on 
the flat surface of a high rock, two painted flgures, a pair of 
monsters, each as large as a calf, with horns like a deer, red 
eyes, beard like a tiger, and a frightful expression. The 
body was covered with scales, and a long tail wound about it. 



JOLIET AND MAEQUETTE. 19 

ending like a fish. The Frenchmeu were frightened at first 
by these pictures of the painted Indian god. 

Suddenly they were astonished by a swift current of 
muddy water rushing into the Mississippi from the west. It 
was the Missouri, which rolls into the Mississippi carrying 
logs, branches and muddy water. Their light canoes were 
whirled around like leaves in the current. At first they were 
frightened, but kept down the river without further danger. 
After passing the mouth of the Ohio, or beautiful river, the 
banks were low and covered with a growth of tall cane. The 
weatlier was very hot and the mosquitoes tormented them 
night and day. Seeing some Indians on the shore they were 
much frightened, but held out the peace pipe which the 
Indians gladly saw and then invited them to land. "They 
were acquainted with white people, for they were armed with 
guns, knives and hatchets, wore garments of cloth and 
carried their gun-powder in small bottles of thick glass. 
They feasted the Frenchmen with buftalo meat, bear's oil 
and white plums and told them falsely that they could reach 
the mouth of the river in ten days." 

Passing on down the river tliree hundred miles further, 
they ueared the mouth of the Arkansas, and saw a cluster of 
wigwams on the west shore. The Indians, upon seeing the 
white men, yelled the war whoop, and snatching then- 
weapons, ran to the shore to meet the strangers, who felt 
themselves in great danger. Several large canoes filled with 
savages, put out from the shore, above and below them, and 
a swarm of young warriors waded into the water to attack 
them. But the current was too deep and one of them threw 
his war club, which passed over the heads of the French- 
men. Marquette held up the peace pipe, but the savages, 
paying no heed to it, strung their bows and aimed their 
arrows. But now the elders of the village came down, called 
back the young men, and, seeing the peace jjipe, invited the 
Frenchmen to land. They did so with tre moling, and were 
better treated than they expected. After a feast of mush 



20 JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 

and fish, the Frenchmen, in much fear, spent the night in 
the Indian lodges. The next day, several miles lower down, 
they visited the village of the Indian chief. Before his 
lodge was a sort of platform, and the ground in front of it 
w^as covered with rush mats for the strangers. The men 
were naked but wore strings of beads in their noses and ears. 
There was in the village a young Indian who could talk the 
Illinois language. Through him Marquette talked with the 
chief and gave presents to the Indians, who feasted the 
Frenchmen in return. While the speeches were going on, 
the Indians kept bringing in food, mush, boiled corn and some- 
times a roasted dog. The Indians had large earthen pots 
and platters made by themselves with tolerable skill, as well 
as hatchets, knives and beads bought from the French and 
Spanish traders. All day they kept up the feast. The 
Indians said that the lower Mississippi was lined with hos- 
tile Indians who were armed with guns obtained from the 
white men, and that they were so much afraid of these 
savages, that they dared not hunt the buflfalo, but lived on 
corn, of which they raised three crops a year. 

The Frenchmen now took council as to what was best to 
be done. They feared the Indians and Spaniards, and 
though they would gladly have seen the mouth of the river, 
they were sure it flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. Having 
decided, therefore, to return up the Mississippi, they left 
the Indian village near the mouth of the Arkansas and 
started homeward July 17th. It was a hard trip against the 
strong current of the great river, in the heat of a summer. 
Rowing all day and camping at night in the damp, unhealthy 
vapors of the river, Marquette was taken sick with dysentery 
and suffered all the long, toilsome journey from languor and 
weakness. When at last they came to the mouth of the 
Illinois, they turned their boats up its current and enjoyed 
its forests, prairies and gentle current. They stopped at an 
Indian village of seventy lodges, each of which had several 
fires and families of the Illinois tribe. • A young Indian 



JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 21 

chief offered to guide tliem to Lake Michigan. Having 
reached Lake Michigan, with their boats, they rowed north- 
ward along its shores, reaching the station at Green Bay 
about the last of Sej)tember. They had been absent four 
months and had traveled more than two thousand five hundred 
miles. 

Marquette remained at the missi )n at Green Bay and 
tried to recover from his sickness. Joliet resolved to carry 
the maps, papers and news of their voyage of discovery to 
Frontenac, governor of Canada, at Montreal. He passed in 
a canoe down the lakes, past Detroit and Niagara, till he 
came to tiie St. Lawrence. He had been very fortunate thus 
far, but at the foot of the rapids of La Chine, just above 
Montreal, his canoe was upset, two of his men and an Indian 
boy were drowned, all his papers Avere lost, and Joliet barely 
escaped with his life. But he was thankful for life and was 
able to make a report to the governor, of their voyage. 

Marquette's health was so poor that he stayed during the 
winter and next summer at the mission on Green Bay. He 
desired greatly to return to the Illinois Indians to preach 
among them, and establish a Christian mission. In October 
of the next year, he set out with two French companions in 
a boat on his journey lo the Illinois. Two bands of Potta- 
wattamies and of Illinois Indians joined them, making in all 
ten canoes. The weather was so stormy that it took them a 
month to follow the coast of Lake Michigan as far as the 
Chicago river. They went up this river a few miles when 
Marquette was taken sick again with bleeding at tiie lungs. 
He told his companions that this would be his last journey. 
It being impossible for Marquette to travel further, his two 
comi)auions built a log liut near the bank and here they spent 
the winter. There was plenty of game and the men brought 
in venison, buffalo and turkey. Marquette spent his time in 
prayers and religious devotions, and was so much recovered 
that in March they set out for the Illinois tribes, on the 
Illinois river. The canoe was carried through mud and 



22 JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. 

water to the Des Plaines, and, floating down this, they reached 
the Illinois. On the bank of the Illinois, not far from the 
present town of Ottawa, was a large Indian village. 

Marquette had been among these people before, and was 
received by them with great joy. He passed from wigwam 
to wigwam preaching among them, and then invited them all 
to a council. "It took place near the town, on the great 
meadow w^iich lies between the river and the modern village 
of Utica. Here five hundred old men and chiefs were seated 
in a ring. Behind stood fifteen hundred young men and 
warriors, and behind these again, all the women and children 
of the village." After he had preached to them, and they 
had received his word with great kindness, "they begged 
him to stay among them and continue his instructions; but 
his life Avas fast ebbing away and he must depart." He 
hoped to reach Mackinac before his death. 

With his two companions he set out again and reached 
Lake Michigan, escorted thus far by the gratefal Indians. 
Then the two Frenchmen row^ed slowly northward along the 
eastern shore, while Marquette lay weak and sick in the boat. 
He was cheerful and happ)-, though he felt that his last hour 
was approaching. As they passed the mouth of a small 
river, Marquette asked his companions to land, and there 
they built a bark hut for the sick man. He gave directions 
for his burial, asked forgiveness for all the trouble he had 
caused them, and thanked God that he had been allowed to 
die in the wilderness as a missionary of the faith. That 
night he quietly passed away. His companions then carried 
the report of his death to Mackinac. 

The next winter, a party of Ottawa Indians, after a hunt- 
ing trip along Lake Michigan, remembered Marquette. 
They fi)und his grave, took up his bones and put them care- 
fully into a box of birch bark. "Then in a procession of thirty 
canoes they bore it, singing funeral songs, to St. Ignace, at 
Mackinaw. As they approached, priests, Indians and traders 
all thronged to the shore. The relics of Marquette were 
received with solemn ceremony and buried beneath the floor 
of the little chapel of the mission." — (Parkman.) 



HENNEPIN'S TRIP UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 23 



t 



HENNEPIN'S TRIP UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 



[authority, PARKMAN's L.V SALLE.] 



A small party of Frenchmen was living in a fort among- 
the Indians on the Illinois river, near the present site of 
Peoria. Hennepin and two other Frenchmen loaded an 
Indian canoe and got ready to go down the Illinois river to 
its mouth, and then up the Mississippi. They filled their 
canoe with blankets, tents, knives, hatchets, tools, beads, 
tobacco, pipes and other presents, for the Indians they should 
meet. They took also guns, bullets and powder for their 
own use. Some meat and corn they also needed at first so 
that their boat was well loaded. 

On the first day of March they left the village and fort, 
and floated down the Illinois river. After a few days the 
mouth of the river was reached, and then began the slow 
journey up the Mississippi. The days were still cold and 
there was floating ice in the river. But the trees were begin- 
ning to bud, for spring was coming. Eveiy night they drew 
their boat to the bank, gathered wood for a fire and cooked 
such game as they could kill, before lying down in their tent 
to sleep. During all the month of March they made their 
way slowly up the river toward the north. Whenever they 
saw signs of game, they landed and hunted along the banks. 
They killed balfalo, beaver, deer, wild turkeys, and occasion- 
ally a bear swimming in the river. Fish were caught in the 



24 Hennepin's trip up the Mississippi. 

stream. Thus they were supplied with meat. Up to this 
time they had seen no Indians along the Mississippi, but they 
knew they were coming nearer Minnesota and the land of the 
Sioux, who were wild and savage and not good friends of 
"white men. No white man had ever gone up the Mississippi 
river into Minnesota, and they knew not what might happen 
to tliem, if they should fall into the hands of the Sioux. 
But in spite of this the Frenchmen wished to explore the 
river farther up and find out what kind of a country it was 
in Minnesota. Hennepin was always dressed as a priest, 
with a hood and cape, and a robe fastened with the beautiful 
cord of St. Francis. 

On the eleventh of April they stopped in the afternoon 
to repair their canoe. Hennepin was daubing it with pitch 
and the other men were cooking a turkey. Suddenly a fleet 
of Sioux canoes came in sight, with a war party of one 
hundred and twenty naked savages. On seeing the French- 
men they raised a great shout. Some leaped ashore, others 
jumped into the water and surrounded the Frenchmen in an 
instant. Hennepin held out a peace pipe, but one of the 
Indians snatched it from him. Next he offered a piece of 
tobacco, which the Indian took gladly. The Indians were 
dressed for war and often spoke the word Miami, so much as 
to say, they were on their way to fight the Miami Indians. 
Hennepin, by signs and by drawing with a stick in the sand, 
made plain to the Sioux that the Miami had already crossed 
the river and left the country. 

Tlie Indians refused to smoke the peace pipe in sign of 
friendship, but prepared to camp for the night. Hennepin 
gave the Indians two turkeys, of which he had several in the 
boat. The Frenchmen hung their kettle and cooked supper 
while the Indians did the same. Then the Indians held a 
council to decide what they should do with the prisoners. 
Some were in favor of killing tliem and taking their boat and 
goods. Other Indians wished to make friends with the 
Frenchmen and get them to bring knives, hatchets, guns and 



Hennepin's trip up the Mississippi. 25 

such things into Minnesota, to trade. After a while two 
chiefs came to Hennepin, and pretended to show by signs that 
the Indians were about to kill him with a club. At this Hen- 
nepin ran to the boat and brought back one of the men loaded 
with presents, which he threw down before the Indians. 
Then he offered them a hatchet with which to kill him if 
they chose. The Indians seemed pleased with his gifts and 
actions, and gave the Frenchmen a dish of beaver's flesh. 
That night the prisoners did not sleep much, fearing that the 
savages might come to kill them at any moment. 

In the morning a young chief, naked and painted from 
head to foot, came to them and asked for the peace pipe which 
he smoked, and then tilled for them to smoke. This was the 
first sign of friendship, and now he told them they would 
all return home, the Frenchmen with the Indians. Hennepin 
was glad to go further up the river, though it was not pleas- 
ant to go as a prisoner. He opened his prayer book and be- 
gan to read, but the Indians gathered around him in fear and 
terror and told him he must not talk to the book for it was a 
bad spirit. The priest was sorry for this because he was ac- 
customed every day to read his prayer. At last he decided 
to sing the prayers instead of reading them, and sang them 
in a loud, clear voice, at which the Indians were much pleased. 
The whole party now started up the river in their birch 
canoes, camping every night on the banks and building rude 
huts with branches and bark if it rained. The French 
always tried to sleep near the young chief who was their 
friend. One day a chief killed a bear and invited the other 
chiefs and warriors to the feast. After the feast they danced 
the medicine dance. All were painted from head to foot, 
with hair oiled, and full of red and white feathers. Then 
they fell to stamping the earth, and whirling around. The 
chief laid his hands upon the Frenchmen's heads and mourned 
in a loud voice. He was trying to persuade the warriors to 
kill the Frenchmen, but they refused. Every morning at 
day break an old warrior shouted the signal to depart, and 



26 Hennepin's teip up the Mississippi. 

without stopping for breakfast, they would often spring into 
the boats and paddle up the stream. They passed the sites 
of the present towns of La Crosse and Winona. Sometimes 
they stopped a day for a buffalo hunt upon the prairies, and 
there was no lack of provisions. While going over Lake 
Pepin the Indians wailed and mourned so often, over friends 
slain in battle, that Hennepin called it the Lake of Tears. 

Nineteen days after the Frenchmen were captured, the 
party landed where St. Paul now stands. At this point the 
Indians prepared to march northward to their homes in the 
villages. They hid their canoes among the bushes, divided 
the goods of the Frenchmen among the bands and set out 
on foot. The Indians were tall and active and walked so 
fast that the Frenchmen could hardly keep up. They waded 
through the ponds and marshes which were still covered 
with thin ice, although it whs the first of May. Hennepin 
almost died with cold as he came out of the icy water. The 
Indians noticing that he lagged behind on the march, would 
set fire to the grass behind him and then run forward with 
him to escape the flames. One small piece of smoked meat 
a day was all the Indians gave him to eat, so he was nearly 
starved. On the fifth day they saw a crowd of chiklren and 
squaws coming, and soon they stood in the Indian village on 
the shores of Mille Lac. As they came up to the village, 
Hennepin noticed before the tents certain tall stakes driven 
into the ground, wrapped with bundles of straw. This 
seemed to show that the Frenchmen were to be burned alive. 
The Indians had painted the face and hair of one of the 
Frenchmen, and put white feathers in his hair, and made 
him sing and dance while entering the village. But Henne- 
pin and the other white men were led into a lodge, seated on 
the ground, and given large dishes of birch bark filled with 
wild rice, boiled with dried huckleberries. This tasted better 
than anything he had eaten since he was a captive. 

The Indians now fell into a dispute as to who should 
keep the captives. At length an agreement was reached 



Hennepin's trip up the Mississippi. 27 

and Hennepin fell to the lot of the old chief, his enemy. 
But the old chief now treated him well, and at once adopted 
him as his son. The other Frenchmen were given to other 
Indian chiefs. Hennepin was now compelled to follow his 
adopted father several miles through the woods and marshes 
to a lake, where they entered a canoe and were ferried to an 
island, upon which the village and home of the old chief lay. 
He was introduced to several of the old chief's wives, and, as 
he entered the tent, an old, wrinkled Indian approached him 
Avith a peace pipe, and placed him on a bear skin spread 
before the fire. He was so worn out that a small Indian boy 
began to anoint his limbs with the fat of a wild cat which 
was supposed to make the limbs more supple. His new 
father also gave him a bark platter of fish, and covered him 
with a buffalo robe. Seeing how feeble Hennepin was, they 
made for him one of their sweating baths three times a week 
and he grew stronger. They did not give him much to eat, 
though they respected him, and stood in awe of a pocket 
compass which he had, as well as of a small metal pot 
with feet moulded like the face of a lion. This they 
would not touch without first wrapping it in a beaver skin. 
He was not successful in teaching the Indians his religion. 
But he doctored them with some medicine that he always 
carried with him. When Hennepin complained of hunger, 
the Indians promised him that they would soon go on a great 
buffalo hunt. 

The three Frenchmen had been three months in captivity 
when the Indians, three hundred and fifty warriors, besides 
their women and children, set out for their hunting party. 
They went in canoes down the Bum river. "After reaching 
the Mississippi, the whole party encamped together opposite 
to the mouth of the Bum river, pitching their tents of skin, 
or building their bark huts, on the slope of a hill by the side 
of the water. It was a wild scene, this camp of savages, 
among whom as yet no traders had come, and no handiwork 
of civilization had found its way. The tall warriors, some 



28 Hennepin's trip up the Mississippi. 

nearly naked, some wrapped in buffalo robes and some in 
shirts of dressed deer skin fringed with hair and embroidered 
with dyed porcupine quills, war clubs of stone in their hands, 
and quivers at their backs, lilled with stone-headed arrows; 
the squaws cutting smoke-dried meat with knives of Hint, and 
boiling it in rude earthen pots of their own making; driving 
away meanwhile, with shrill cries, the troops of lean dogs, 
which disputed the meal with the hungry children. The 
whole camp was threatened indeed with starvation. The 
three white men could get no food but unrij^e berries, from 
the effects of which, Hennepin thinks they might all have 
died but for timely doses of his medicine." (Parkman's 
^'La Salle.") 

Each tribe of Indians was ai^pointed to a certain hunting 
ground, but Hennepin did not wish to go with his adopted 
father and his tribe, for fear that the old chief would become 
angry and kill him. He claimed that he expected a party of 
w^hite traders at the mouth of the Wisconsin. Accordingly 
he and one of the Frenchmen were allowed to take a boat 
and go to meet them. A small canoe was given them and an 
earthen pot. They had also a gun, a knife and a robe of 
beaver skin. They soon reached St. Anthony's falls, where 
Minneapolis now stands. They saw five Indians at the falls, 
one of whom had hung a robe of beaver skins among the 
branches as an offering to the deity of the place. 

They now paddled down the river, living mostly on turtles, 
ivhich were so shy as to be caught with difficulty. They also 
killed a deer whose flesh soon spoiled in the July heat. On the 
prairies a herd of buffalo was seen and Hennepin's compan- 
ion took the gun and went in pursuit; meanwhile some of 
the herd waded into the river, Hennepin called to his friend 
who came up with the gun and shot a buffalo cow which fell 
in the water. They were not able to drag her out, but cut 
off the flesh where she lay, made a fire and eat heartily, as 
they had taken nothing for two days. The effect was that they 
both became sick and were compelled to remain on an island 



HENNEPIN'S TRIP UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 2^ 

in the river for two days longer. They did not know how to 
smoke and dry the meat, so that it soon spoiled. They had 
some fish-hooks, but did not always succeed in catching tish 
when they were hungry. " On one occasion, being nearly 
famished, they set a line and lay watching it, when suddenly 
there was a great turmoil in the water. They ran to the line 
and drew in two great cat-fish. The eagles or fish-hawks 
now and then dropped a newly caught fish, of which the men 
gladly took possession. Once they saw an otter on the bank 
devouring an object so wonderful in appearance that the 
Frenchmen cried out that he had a devil between his paws. 
They frightened him from his prey, which proved to be a 
sword-fish, with a bony projection from his snout in the shape 
of a paddle." — (Parkman. ) 

One day Hennepin was surprised at being overtaken by 
the old chief, who came down to meet the white traders, but 
passing on ahead of Hennepin, he returned in three days in 
anger, saying that no white traders were to be found at the 
mouth of the Wisconsin. As the traders were not come, and 
there was danger of starvation if they proceeded up the 
Wisconsin alone, and because they had but ten charges of 
powder left, the two Frenchmen decided to join a party of 
Sioux hunters, who, the old chief said, were hunting near 
Lake Pepin. By doing this they would get a supply of food 
and avoid the danger of meeting parties of roving warriors. 
They soon found this band and joined them in a grand hunt 
along the Mississippi. The Sioux warriors chased the buffalo 
on foot with their stone-headed arrows on the plains back of 
the bluffs. The old men stood sentinel on the heights watch- 
ing for the approach of enemies. 

One day an alarm was given and the warriors rushed to 
the supposed point of danger, but found only two squaws 
who brought strange news, that a war party of Sioux, while 
on the way to Lake Superior, had met five "spirits," or white 
men. The hunt had been successful, and the Indians, with 
the Frenchmen, turned northward up the river. Below the 



so HENNEPIN'S TRIP UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Falls of St. Anthony, they met Da Luth and four other well- 
armed Frenchmen. It was a happy meeting for both parties, 
and they all returned together to the villages about Mille 
Lacs. The Sioux not only treated Hennepin better than be- 
fore, but gave Du Luth and Hennepin a grand feast, at which 
one hundred and twenty guests were seated. The great chief 
of the Sioux placed before Hennepin, with his own hands, a 
bark dish containing a mess of smoked meat and wild rice." 
In the fall the eight white men set out together on their 
return to Canada. "As they j)assed St. xinthony's Falls, two 
of the men stole two buffalo-robes which were hung on trees 
as offerings to the spirit of the cataract. When Du Luth 
heard of it he was very angry, telling the meu that they had 
endangered the lives of the whole party." But the men 
insisted on keeping the robes. On their way down the Mis- 
sissippi, they met with excellent hunting, and at the mouth 
of the Wisconsin, stopped to dry the buffalo meat. They 
now made their journey up the Wisconsin to the Fox, and 
down to Green Bay, where was a mission. The journey was 
then continued to Mackinac, where Hennepin spent the 
winter. The next spring he traveled down the lakes and the 
St. Lawrence, to Quebec, where he was warmly welcomed by 
the governor, to whom he related the long story of his 
adventures. 



LA SALLE. 31 



LA SALLE. 



[authority, PARKMAN'S la SALLE.] 



La Salle came to Canada from France in 1666, when be 
was twenty-three years old. After stopping a short time at 
Montreal, he obtained a grant of land at a place now called 
La Chine, located on the banks of the St. Lawrence, about 
eight miles above Montreal. He and the other settlers had 
to clear away the woods, parcel out the land and build houses 
and a stockade. It was a dangerous place, exposed to the 
attacks of the Iroquois Indians, but situated favorably also 
for the fur trade. La Salle traced out a palisaded village 
from which he could overlook the broad Lake of St. Louis, 
into Avhich the St. Lawrence widens at this place. Indians 
frequently visited his settlement, some of them spending the 
winter with him and telling of the Ohio and Mississippi, 
great rivers to the westward. La Salle soon begun to think 
of plans of western discovery and of a road to the riches of 
India. He applied himself to the study of Indian languages, 
and at the end of two years, mastered the Iroquois and 
several other Indian tongues. 

La Salle's tirst voyage was made with four canoes, supplies 
and fourteen men, to the head of the Ohio river, which he 
explored as far as the falls. In 1673, Fronteuac, the governor 
of Canada, and La Salle planned an expedition to found a 



32 LA SALLE. 

fort at the head of Lake Ontario, where the city of Kingston 
now stands. "Having sent men, canoes and baggage by land 
to La Salle's old settlement of La Chine, Frontenac himself 
followed on the 28th of June. Liclnding soldiers and Indians 
from the missions, he now had with him about four hundred 
men and a hundred and twenty canoes, besides two large 
flat-boats, which he caused to be painted in red and blue 
with strange devices, intended to dazzle the Iroquois. Now 
their hard task began. Shouldering canoes through the 
forest, dragging the flat-boats along the shore, working like 
beavers, sometimes in water to the knees, sometimes to the 
arm-pits, their feet cut by the sharp stones, and they them- 
selves well-nigh swept down by the furious current, they 
fought their way upward against the chain of mighty rapids, 
that break the navigation of the St. Lawrence. The Indians 
were of the greatest service. Frontenac, like La Salle^ 
showed from the first a special faculty in managing them. 
For his keen spirit was exactly to their liking, and they 
worked for him as they would have worked for no other man. 
As they approached the Long rapid, rain fell in torrents, and 
the governor, without his cloak and drenched to the skin^ 
directed in person the toil of his followers. Once he lay 
awake all night, in anxiety lest the biscuit should be wet,, 
which would have ruined the expedition. No such mischance 
took place, and at length the last rapid was passed and 
smooth water awaited them to their journey's end. Soon 
they reached the Thousand Islands and their light boats 
glided in long file among these watery labyrinths and rocky 
islets, where some lonely pine towered like a mast against 
the sky, by sun-scorched crags, by deep dells, shady and cool, 
rich in rank ferns and spongy, dark green mosses, by still 
coves where water lilies lay like snow flakes on their broad, 
flat leaves, till at length they neared their goal and the 
glistening bosom of Lake Ontario opened on their sight." 
— (Park man.) 

Frontenac now put the canoes in order of battle in four 



LA SALLE. 33 

lines with the flat-boats in the center. A canoe approached 
them bearing several Iroc^uois chiefs. Entering the wido 
mouth of a river, they passed along the shore where Kings- 
ton now stands. Then they landed, lighted fires and pitched 
their tents. Close at hand in the forests were the camping 
sheds of the Iroquois, many of whom had come to meet 
Frontenac. At day break the next morning the drums beat, 
the soldiers were drawn up in arms in two long lines, througli 
which the Indians passed on their way to the council. The 
Indians were astonished at the fine drill of the Frenchmen 
and at the splendid uniforms of the officers. The ground in 
front of Frontenac's tent had been carpeted with the sails 
from the flat-boats, upon which the Indians squatted them- 
selves and smoked their pipes in silence. One of the chiefs 
of the five nations began with a respectful speech to Fron- 
tenac, whereupon Frontenac replied in his proud manner, 
which proved pleasing to the Indians. " Children, Mohawks, 
Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas! I am glad to see 
you here where I have had a fire lighted for you to smoke by 
and for me to talk to you. You have done well, my children, 
to obey the command of your father. Take courage, you 
will hear his word which is full of peace and tenderness. 
For do not think that I have come for war. My mind is full 
of Peace, and she walks by my side. Courage, then, children, 
and take rest." (Parkman's La Salle.) He then gave 
them tobacco, promised to be a kind father to them, and 
ended with a gift of guns to the men and prunes and raisins 
to their wives and children. During tins first council, the 
French engineer was laying out the lines of a fort, and the 
whole party set to work to build it. Trees were cut down, 
trenches dug and palisades sharpened and the work went on 
so smoothly and rapidly that the Indians were astonished. 
Frontenac spared no pains to make friends with some of the 
Indian chiefs, invited them to his table, gave bread and 
sweet-meats to the children and feasted the squaws. 

"When the fort was well under way, he invited the Indians 

3 



34 LA SALLE. 

to a second great council. He made also another speech, 
advising them to be friendly with such men as La Salle, 
whom he would send to the fort. But if they were hostile, 
he threatenod to bring a great army against them. He was 
about to build a store house at the fort where all the Indians 
could come and sell their furs and buy all the goods they 
needed. He also added many other presents during the 
course of the speech. 

Frontenac, after thus treating with the Indians returned 
safely to Montreal. The fort had been completed and 
called Frontenac and a vessel was to be built to sail on the 
lake as far as Niagara. In this way Frontenac expected to 
defend the whole of western Canada from the attacks of the 
powerful Iroquois. La Salle now returned to France and 
obtained from the king the right to own and govern the fort 
and surrounding country under the control of the governor, 
Frontenac. He had, also, upon his return to America, an 
opportunity to grow rich by trading in furs at Fort Frontenac. 
For two years La Salle reigned like a king in the frontier 
wilderness. He took down the wooden fort and built one 
much larger of stone, containing a row of barracks for soldiers, 
a guard house, a lodging for officers, a blacksmith's shop or 
forge, f well, a mill and a bakery. Nine small cannon were 
placed on the walls and altogether there were about a dozen 
soldiers besides about forty laborers, masons and skillful 
canoe men. On the shore to the south of the fort was a vil- 
lage of French families who had cleared a hundred acres of 
land for agriculture. Cattle, fowl and swine had also been 
brought up the St. Lawence. 

But La Salle was not satisfied with making money at the 
fur trade while living at Frontenac. His mind was full of 
thoughts of western discovery. He returned again to France 
and got the king's permission to explore the lakes and rivers 
to the west, to build forts and to carry on the trade in beaver 
and buffalo skins. On his return he brought with him Tonty, 
an Italian, who proved a great helper. Hennepin, the priest, 



LA SALLE. 35 

also joined him. In November, 1679, La Salle, Tonty and Hen- 
nepin, with other men, went up Lake Ontario in boats to the 
mouth of the Niagara river, where they proposed to erect a 
strong warehouse. The voyage was stormy and dangerous, 
and La Salle did not reach the Niagara till after Christmas. 
The Seneca Indians, who dwelt near, appeared much dis- 
pleased at the plans of the French, but La Salle persuaded 
them to remain friendly. After the warehouse was completed, 
the plans of building a vessel in the Niagara river above the 
falls was carried out. With this vessel he proposed to navi- 
gate Lake Erie and the upper lakes. A vessel in which 
Hennepiu and others had come from Frontenac, was unloaded, 
and the tools, forge and cordage were carried twelve miles along 
the banks and up the high hills near Niagara, to a point six 
miles above the falls. Wading through the cold and snow, 
the men got all the supplies above the falls by the end of 
January. Hennepin toiled along with a portable altar lashed 
to his back. Having found a good creek six miles above 
Niagara, they cleared the ground for building the new ship. 
Trees were cut down, and wigwams were built by two Mohe- 
gan hunters, who were with them. It was the hunting season 
of the Iroquois and most of the warrior's were gone, but a 
few Indians loitered about much displeased with the efforts 
of the French at ship-building. When they saw the great 
wooden ribs, they were still more angry and threatened to 
burn it. The carpenters were also out of food, and much 
discontented, but the Mohegan hunters brought in deer and 
other game. The men were kept at work by the brave, per- 
severing Tonty, till the vessel, the Griffin, was completed. 
"When spring opened, she was ready for launching. The 
priest pronounced his blessing upon her, the assembled com- 
pany sang a hymn, cannon were fired, and French and 
Indians, warmed alike by a generous gift of brandy, shouted 
and yelped in chorus as she glided into the Niagara. Her 
builders towed her out and anchored her in the stream, safe 
from the Indians, and then, swinging their hammocks under 



36 LA SALLE. 

her deck, slept in peace. The Indians gazed on her with 
amazement. Five small cannons looked out from her port- 
holes, and on her prow was carved a monster, the griffin." 

When La Salle returned, the vessel was towed with ropes 
from the bank up to Lake Erie, where they fired their guns 
and set sail up the unknown lake. After three days they 
reached the outlet of the Detroit river and sailed up through 
the straits. "Here, on the right hand and on the left, lay 
verdant prairies, dotted with groves and bordered with lofty 
forests. They saw walnut, chestnut and wild plum trees, 
and oaks festooned with wild grape vines; herds of deer and 
flocks of swans and wild turkeys. The bulwarks of the 
Griffin were plentifully hung with game which the men 
killed on shore, and among the rest were a number of bear, 
which Hennepin praised for their excellent flesh. They, he 
says, who will one day have the happiness to possess this fer- 
tile and pleasant strait, will be very much obliged to those 
who have shown them the way." After they had entered 
Lake Huron, a fearful storm came up which threatened to 
send them to the bottom, but it quieted, and the Griffin kept 
on its way till Point Ignace was reached at Mackinac. As 
they approached the mission the cannon were flred and the 
Indians yelled. Soon the great vessel was surrounded by a 
hundred small boats. La Salle and his men, soldiers, sailors, 
artisans and priests, entered the chapel and knelt down 
together to return thanks. 

La Salle found here that some of the traders whom he 
had sent out had deserted him, and were trying to trade in 
furs independently of him. These men were arrested by La 
Salle, and Tonty was sent to the Falls of St. Mary to arrest 
others. In September, La Salle sailed west through the 
straits to the head of Green Bay, where he found friendly 
Indians and several of his men who had remained faithful 
to him, and had collected a large amount of furs. He now 
resolved to send back the Griffin, laden with furs, to 
Niagara. 



LA SALLE. 37 

"La Salle, with the fourteen men who remained, in four 
canoes, deeply laden with a forge, tools, merchandise and 
arrows, put out from the island and resumed his voyage. 
The first evening was stormy, and the voyagers, after being 
drenched with rain, were glad to take refuge in a sandy cove 
where their boats were drawn up. Here they spent five days, 
living on pumpkins and Indian corn, furnished by their 
Indian friends." When the tempest ceased, they steered 
southward along the coast of Wisconsin. Several times they 
were driven by storms to the shore. "Every night, also, the 
canoes had to be shouldered through the breakers and 
dragged up the steep banks. The men sometimes paddled 
all day with no other food than a handful of Indian corn." 
They found Indian villages, but were afraid to trust the 
natives. As they came near the southern end of Lake Mich- 
igan, game grew plenty, and they were supplied by the 
Mohegan hunter with plenty of bears' meat and venison. 
They also cut down trees for the wild grapes clustered upon 
them. These were much better than the haws and wild 
berries which they had been devouring. Further south they 
came near having a battle with some Indians, who at first 
appeared to be friendly, but stole a coat and some tools from 
La Salle's party. La Salle captured one of the Indians and 
then told the others that unless the things were returned, 
the captive would be slain. But at last an agreement was 
reached and both parties joined in a feast and in speeches. 
La Salle and his party now traveled around the southern 
shore of Lake Michigan till the mouth of the St, Joseph 
was reached, where Touty, with another party, had promised 
to join him. But Tonty had not yet come. The men all 
demanded to be led into the Illinois before the winter set in, 
but La Salle refused to desert Tonty, and set the men to 
work to build a fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph. After 
twenty days Tonty arrived. 

On the third of December the company, thirty-three in 
all, in eight canoes started up the river to the site of the 



38 LA SALLE. 

present village o£ South Bend. Near here they expected to 
find a path or portage leading to the source of the Illinois 
river. But the Mohegan Indian guide was absent hunting, 
and the untrained eyes of the Frenchmen failed to see the 
path as they passed. La Salle landed to look for it and lost 
his way. The snow was falling so fast that he could see only 
a short distance. He wandered through the woods until he 
saw a fire which he supposed belonged to his party. He 
hurried to it, but found no one near, though a bed of dry 
grass, still warm from recent use, showed that it had just 
been deserted. He called, in several Indian languages, but 
received no answer. Some Indian must have been in ambush 
waiting to kill an enemy, but as he had disappeared, La Salle 
decided to take possession of the place. He made a barri- 
cade of bushes around the fire and calling to the unseen 
owner that he was going to sleep in his bed, he lay down on 
the grass where he slept until morning. In the meantime 
the rest of the party was much alarmed at La Salle's absence. 
They landed, fired guns and sent men to search for him, but 
all in vain. That night they sat on the shore wrapped in 
their blankets to shield them from the storm, and waited for 
the leader, who, they feared, might never return. It was late 
on the following day when they saw him "coming along the 
bank of the river carrying two opossums, which he had 
killed with a stick as they hung, head downward, from the 
branch of a tree." 

The Mohegan guide, having returned to the portage, was 
soon found. The next morning, carrying their canoes and 
baggage, consisting of a forge, tools, merchandise and arms, 
the party started for the source of the Illinois river about 
five miles distant. Their course lay through a marshy plain, 
covered with snow and strewn with skulls and bones of 
buffaloes. The soil grew more spongy and difficult to traverse 
as they advanced. At last they came to a little stream of 
water, so narrow that a tall man could step over it. Here 
were the sources of the Kankakee. They set their canoes in 



LA SALLE. 39 

this stream, and pushed their way until it widened into a 
river. As they floated down the river the scene changed. 
They saw, on either side, long chains of hills crowned with 
trees. By climbing these hills, they discovered the great 
prairies beyond. They met no Indians, but at night, perceived 
in the distance, the camp-tires of the Indian hunters. Game 
was scarce, and they suffered from hunger. The men grew 
discontented, and threatened to desert La Salle and join the 
Indians. Finally they came upon a large buffalo stuck in the 
mud near the river. They killed him, and 'fastened a cable 
around the body. So large was he that it took twelve men 
to pull him out. Keeping on their way they at last reached 
the Illinois river. At Ottawa they noted the high plateau of 
Buffalo Rock, a favorite dwelling i^lace of the Indians, and 
farther down the river, the steep cliff' now known as Starved 
Eock. Below in the valley, on New Year's daj', they saw the 
Indian village where they hoped to get supplies. This was 
one of the large villages of the Illinois. Hennepin counted 
four hundred and sixty lodges. These lodges were built of 
a framework of poles shaped something like the curved top 
of a baggage wagon, then covered with mats of rushes. 
Some were so large that several fires could be built in one of 
them and several families find homes in it. The town 
seemed silent and deserted. They landed, but found no one 
to welcome them. The Indians were all out on their autumn 
hunt. Some of the men found pits containing corn. La 
Salle, knowing how much the Indians prized this corn, at 
first refused to let his men take any of it, but so great was 
their need that he consented that they should take a little, 
hoping to be able to pay the Indians and pacify their anger. 
Returning to their canoes, they floated on down the river 
and passed into an expanse of water now known as Peoria 
lake. There they saw above the trees smoke from many 
fires, and knew they had at last reached the village of the 
Illinois. Now La Salle did not know whether he would be 
received as a friend or as a foe, so he decided to go prepared 



40 LA SALLE. 

:for either peace or war. The shores had come close together, 
and the Illinois was again a river where the village stood. 
The wigwams, about eighty in number, were built on both 
banks. The canoes were placed in two lines, one taking the 
right and the other the left bank of the river. Dropping 
"their oars, the men seized their guns and the swift current 
swept them into the midst of the camp. Surprised at the 
sudden appearance and warlike attitude of the French, the 
Indians ran about in great confusion. As La Salle and his 
men sprang ashore some of the older warriers came forward 
with the calumet. La Salle showed his in return, while 
Hennepin tried to soothe some of the frightened children. 
Soon quiet was restored and food was set before them, the 
Indians putting the morsels into the mouths of their guests 
with their fingers, according to the rules of Illinois hospital- 
ity. After the feast La Salle spoke to the Indians, telling 
them that he had come as a friend to help them, if need be, 
against their enemies, the Iroquois. In order to do this, he 
■wished to build a fort near them for supplies. He told them 
that his men had taken from their store of corn, but offered 
ample pay for their loss. He explained how he was going to 
build a large Avooden canoe, in which he and his men could 
go down their river and the Mississippi to the countries be- 
low. If they would not help him he would go on to the tribe 
of the Osages, and give them his protection. Anxious to 
keep the French with them, the Indians promised all that 
was desired, and the rest of the evening was spent in feast- 
ing. But during the night an Indian named Mouso came 
secretly into camp, and, calling together a council, told them 
not to trust La Salle, as he was going below to incite the 
tribes to war against them, together with the Iroquois. After 
telling these things he stole quietly away, so that La Salle 
might not know that he had been there. In the morning a 
young chief, a friend of La Salle's, told him, secretly, of the 
midnight council. That day the French were invited to a 
feast. While waiting for their dinner, an old chief said he 



LA SALLE. 41 

•wished to warn them against a visit down the Mississippi. 
Such a journey wouki be full of danger. They would meet 
hostile tribes, great monsters, and find dreadful whirlpools 
which w^ould swallow up their boats. La Salle thanked the 
chief for his warning, but said, the more danger the more 
glory in making the journey. But had not their friends, the 
Illinois, been deceived? The French were not asleep, he 
said, when Monso came to tell that they were spies of the 
Iroquois. If he had told the truth, why did he skulk away 
in the dark? If the French had so desired, they might have 
killed them all, when they first came and found the camp in 
confusion. He spoke of the presents they had brought, and 
ended by saying: "If you still harbor evil thoughts of us, 
be frank, as we are, and speak them boldly." The Indians 
made no answer, but seemed to agree with what was said. 

Now, La Salle's men were not all so brave as he, and fear- 
ing the dangers of which the Indian had spoken, six of them 
deserted during the night. La Salle at once decided to leave 
the Indian camp, as he could not trust them, and about the 
middle of January he went a short distance down the river 
and selected a place for a fort- This was a hill fronting the 
river and bounded on two sides by deep ravines. These 
ravines they connected by digging a deep ditch at the back 
of the hill. They threw up an embankment of earth all 
around, and sloped the sides steeply down to the ravines and 
ditch. Then they put a palisade twenty-five feet high around 
the whole. The lodgings of the men were built of musket- 
proof logs at two of the angles, the house of the priest at a 
third, and the forge and magazines at the fourth. The tents 
of La Salle and Tonty were in the center. This was the first 
occupation of the state of Illinois by white men. The new 
fort was called Fort Creve Coeur, a French word, meaning *'a 
grieved heart." Here they waited for the springtime before 
starting out on new discoveries. But La Salle, who was very 
anxious to know what had happened to the Grifiin, resolved 
to return on foot to Niagara. With five companions he set 
out at the beginning of March, and traveled on foot through 
the greatest dangers and hardships for more than two months 
before reaching Fort Frontenac. Tonty was left in command 
at Fort Creve Coeur. 



42 THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE 



1. Cause of the Indian outbreak. 

2. Sergeant Jones at Fort Ridgley. 

3. Otlierday and Biggs. 

4. Attack on Fort Eidgley. 

5. Fugitives at St. Peter. 

6. Advance of the troops. 

The Sioux Indians who once occupied nearly the whole 
of Minnesota, had sold their lands to the whites and were 
living on two reservations along the upper Minnesota river. 
Missionaries lived among them, and government agents, who 
taught and tried to civilize them. Some of the Indians had 
thrown away their tomahawks and were raising corn and 
wheat on the reservation. But most of them, called blanket 
Indians, refused to become civilized, and followed the chase 
as of old. The Government of the United States furnished 
them with provisions and clothing, besides money. In the 
summer of 1862 the money due the Indians, had long been 
delayed, and tlie Indians, who were really enemies to the 
whites, decided secretly to kill all the white people in the 
Minnesota valley, and to drive the others beyond the Missis- 
sippi. Just at this time the great war between the North 
and the South had called away most of the young men and 
soldiers from Minnesota, and the Indians thought it was a 
good opportunity for them to attack the whites. 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE, 43 

There were several towns along the Minnesota river, like 
Henderson, St. Peter, Mankato and New Ulm, and farmers 
had settled up the country along both sides of the river as 
far as the Indian reservations. These farming people did 
not know that the Indians were about to fall upon them. At 
Fort Ridgley, on the north side of the Minnesota river, four- 
teen miles below the lower agency, there were about thirty 
soldiers stationed, and some women and children. 

On the third of August, 1862, a large number of Indians 
appeared before the place, apparently as friends. "I was 
looking toward the agency," says one of the men at the fort, 
"and saw a large body of men coming up. They were 
mounted, and knowing now that they must be Indians, I was 
surprised at seeing so many, as they were unexpected. Re- 
turning to the garrison to inquire what it meant, I found 
Sergeant Jones at the entrance, with a mounted howitzer 
charged with shell and canister shot, pointed towards the 
Indians, who were removed but a short distance from the 
guard house. 1 asked the sergeant if any danger was feared. 
He replied, 'No, but it is a good rule for a soldier to be always 
ready for any emergency.'" The Indians were all warriors, 
ninety-six in number, all carried arms, guns and tomahawks, 
with ammunition pouches suspended round their shoulders. 
They asked j^ermission to dance within the enclosure sur- 
rounding the fort, but this was refused. They then arranged 
for a dance outside, about sixty yards from the guard house. 
The guard that day consisted of three soldiers. One was 
walking leisurely to and fro in front of the guard house, the 
other two were off duty, passing about and taking their rest. 
All were entirely without fear of danger from the Indians. 
But there was one man who believed there was always danger 
surrounding a garrison when visited by savages. It was 
Sergeant Jones. From the time he took his position at the 
gun, he never left it. He not only remained at the gun 
himself, but retained two other men, whom he had previously 
trained, as assistants, to work the piece. This faithful sol- 



44 THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 

dier stood at his gun all night, ready to fire, if occasion re- 
quired, at any moment during that time. Nor could he be 
persuaded to leave the gun till all this party of Indians had 
entirely disappeared. After the dance, the Indians en- 
camped on a piece of rising ground about a quarter of a mile 
from the fort. The next morning at ten o'clock they all left 
the vicinity of the garrison. 

Sergeant Jones was informed, not many days afterward, 
that these Indians had come to surprise and massacre the 
garrison. They had been selected for that purpose by Little 
Orow, chief of the Sioux. In the midst of the dance they 
were to seize their weapons and murder every person at the 
fort, and then seize all the guns and ammunition. But all 
the time during the dance and during the night, they saw 
that big gun pointed at them. About two weeks after this 
time these Indians attacked Fort Eidgley and tried to cap- 
ture it. 

On the eighteenth of August the Indians all along the 
upper Minnesota, fell upon the settlers and murdered them. 
At the upper agency they did not begin till evening. John 
Ofcherday, a friendly Indian, brought news in the evening 
that the Indians had risen against the whites. In the even- 
ing the stores at the upper agency were attacked by the 
Indians and plundered, after the clerks had been killed or 
frightened away. At one of the s'ores Peter Patoil was 
shot just outside of the store, the bullet entering at the back, 
passing through the lungs and coming out in front. An 
Indian came to him after he fell, turned him over and say- 
ing, "he is dead," left him. The Indians now turned to plun- 
dering the stores, and Patoil crawled oflf into the bushes on 
the banks of the Yellow Medicine. Here he remained till 
dark. After dark he got up and started for a place of safety. 
■Going up the blufi's, he dragged himself a mile and a half to 
the mouth of the Yellow Medicine, waded across the Minne- 
sota river, and going into a house lay down in an empty 
bed and slept till the next morning. Here some friendly 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 45 

Indians found liim, supplied liim with crackers, tripe and 
onions, and concealed him during the day in a neighboring 
ravine. They gave him a blanket, also, and sent him to the 
northeast across the prairies. That night he slept on the 
prairie. After wandering for several days, and having noth- 
ing more to eat, he entered an empty house and found some 
raw potatoes and green corn. On the twelfth day of his 
wanderings he heard the barking of dogs, and was overjoyed 
at seeing white men. By these farmers he was taken to St.. 
Cloud, forty miles away, where his wounds were dressed. 

We now return to the warehouse at Yellow Medicine, 
which we left to follow the fortunes of young Patoil. After 
Otherday had come in with the news of the outbreak, the 
white families were all gathered together in the warehouse 
and dwelling of the agent, a part of the same building. 
With the guns they had, they prepared themselves as best 
they could, and awaited the attack, determined to sell their 
lives as dearly as possible. There were gathered here sixty- 
two persons, men, women and children. Otherday and sev- 
eral other Indians came to them and told them that they 
would stand by them to the last. These men visited the 
Indian councils several times during the night. About one 
or two o'clock in the morning, Mr. Garvie, from one of the 
stores, reached the warehouse badly wounded. By daylight 
the whites had been deserted by all the friendly Indians 
save Otherday. The yells of the savages could be distinctly 
heard at the trading post half a mile away. They were 
absorbed in the work of plunder. The chances of escape 
for the whites were sadly against them, yet they decided to 
make the attempt. Otherday knew every foot of the country 
over which they must pass, and would be their guide. The 
wagons were driven to the door, a bed was placed upon one of 
them for Mr. Garvie. The women and children provided a 
few loaves of bread, and just at dawn they started on their 
perilous way. They crossed the Minnesota at Labelle's farm, 
and soon turned into the woods on Hawk river, crossed that 



46 THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 

stream at some distance above its mouth and ascended from the 
narrow valley through which it runs, to the prairie beyond. 
They followed the Minnesota, keeping back on the prairie, as 
far as the farm of J. R. Brown, eight miles below the Yellow 
Medicine. A consultation was held here as to where they 
should go. Some of them wished to go to Fort Ridgley, 
others to some town farther from the frontier. Otherday 
told them if they attempted to go to the fort, all would be 
killed, as the Indians would be lying in ambush on that road. 
His council prevailed, and they turned to the left, across the 
prairie, in the direction of Kandiyohi lakes and Glencoe. 
At night one of the party mounted a horse and rode forward 
and found a house about a mile ahead. They hastened for- 
ward and reached it in time to avoid a furious storm. They 
were kindly received by the only person about the premises, 
a man whose family was away. On Wednesday morning 
they left the house of the friendly settler, and that night 
reached Cedar City, eleven miles from Hutchinson, in the 
county of McLeod. The inhabitants had deserted the town, 
and had gone to an island in Cedar lake. From the main 
land the island was reached through shallow water. Through 
this water our escaping party drove, and was cordially wel- 
comed by the people assembled there. That night it rained, 
and all were drenched to the skin. Poor Mr. Garvie was laid 
under a rude shed on his bed, and all was done for him that 
man could do. A day or two afterward he died. On Thurs- 
day they went on by way of Glencoe to Carver, and thence 
to Shakopee and St. Paul. Major Galbraith, the Indian 
agent, said: "Led by the noble Otherday, they struck out on 
the naked prairie, literally placing their lives in this faithful 
creature's hands, and guided by him and him alone. After 
intense suffering and privation, they reached Shakopee on 
Friday, August twenty-second, Otherday never having left 
them for an instant, and this Otherdav is a full-blooded 
Indian, and was not long since one of the wildest and fiercest 
of his race." 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 47 

Rev. Ml'. Riggs, the missionary at Hazlewood, above the 
lower agency, was informed by two friendly Indians of the 
outbreak. His family, with others, got up a team, and the 
friendly Indians went with them to an island in the Minne- 
sota river about three miles from the mission. Here they 
remained till Tuesday evening. In the afternoon Andrew 
Hunter, a son-in-law of Dr. Williamson, came to him with 
the information that the family of himself and the doctor 
were secreted below. At night they formed a junction on 
the north side of the Minnesota river, and commenced their 
dangerous journey. A thunder storm effectually obliterated 
their tracks, so that the savages could not follow them. 
They started out on the prairie in a north-easterly direction, 
and on Wednesday morning changed their course southeast- 
erly, till they reached the Lac qui Parle road, and then made 
directly for Fort Ridgley. When within a few miles of that 
post, just at night, they were discovered by two Indians on 
horseback, who rode along parallel with the train for a while 
and then turned and galloped away. The fugitives hastened 
on, momentarily expecting an attack. Near the Three-mile 
creek they passed a dead body lying by the roadside. They 
drove on, passing the creek, and turned out upon the prairie 
and halted a mile and a half from the fort. It was now late 
at night. They had heard firing, and had seen Indians in 
the vicinity. They were in doubt what to do. It was at 
length decided that Andrew Hunter should enter the fort 
and ascertain its condition, and learn, if possible, whether 
they could get in. Hunter went, and although the fort was 
wellnigh surrounded by savages, succeeded in crawling by on 
his hands and knees into the fort. He was told it would be 
impossible for so large a party, forty or more, to get through 
the Indian lines, and that he would better return and tell 
to push them on to the town below. He left as he had en- 
tered, crawling out into the prairie, and returned to his 
friends in safety. 

It seemed very cruel to be so near a place of security and 



4:8 THE SIOUX MASSACEE. 

be obliged to turn away from it, and weary and hungry, press 
on. Perils beset their path on every hand. They knew that 
all around them the work of desolation was going on, for the 
mid-night sky on every hand was red with the flames of 
burning houses. They heard from out the gloom, the tramp 
of horses' feet hurrying past them in the darkness, but they 
still pressed on. Soon their wearied animals gave out, and 
again they encamped for the night. With the early dawn 
they were upon the move, some eight miles from the fort, in 
the direction of Henderson. They traveled slowly and pain- 
fully, for their teams as well as themselves were nearly ex- 
hausted. That day the savages were beleaguering New Ulm, 
and the sounds of the conflict were borne faintly to their 
ears, upon the breeze. They had flour with them, but no 
means of cooking it, and were consequently much of the 
time without proper food. On the afternoon of this day 
they came to a deserted house, on the road from Fort Ridgley 
to Henderson, where they found a stove, cooking utensils and 
a jar of cream. Obtaining some corn from the field or gar- 
den near by, and confiscating the cream, they prepared 
themselves the first good meal they had had since leaving 
their homes on Monday night. After refreshing themselves 
and their worn animals at this place for some hours, their 
journey was again resumed. That night they slept in a for- 
saken house on the prairie, and on the Sabbath morning early,^ 
were again on the way. As they proceeded, they met some 
cf the settlers returning to their farms, and calling a halt 
at a once deserted house, where they found a large number 
of people collected, they concluded to remain until Monday 
and recuperate themselves and teams, as well as to observe, 
in a proper manner, the holy Sabbath. On Monday morning 
they separated, part going to Henderson and part to St. Peter. 
The Indians at first made a furious attack upon New 
Ulm, but being driven back from that place by the brave de- 
fenders, they collected in large numbers for an attack upon 
Fort Ridgley. New troops had arrived, and in this fort were 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 49 

now collected about 130 soldiers, besides those who had fled 
from the farms and settlements along the river. The fort 
was on a bluff on the northern shore, about a mile from the 
river. A ravine filled with bushes and trees extended along 
either side of the bluff. Up one of these ravines ran one of the 
roads leading to the fort. The fort itself consisted of a square 
space enclosed by houses, the barracks of the soldiers, store- 
houses, and homes of the officers. The Indians came up unseen 
and hid themselves in the bushes along the ravines, without 
the knowledge of the soldiers. When they were collected in 
sufficient numbers, they suddenly opened a fire upon the sol- 
diers, and killed and wounded a few of the men. At the first 
shot, the soldiers concealed themselves behind boxes and 
houses, and watched for an opportunity to pick off the savage 
foes wherever they showed themselves. In this way they 
fought from three o'clock till dark, the artillery all the while 
shelling the ravine. Many of the Indians were killed. In 
the meantime some of the Indians had crept up behind the 
hay stacks and into part of the out-buildings. A few well- 
directed shells from the howitzers set them on fire, and as 
night came on, the red light of the burning buildings and 
stacks lighted up the scene and revealed any lurking savage. 
The Indians retired with the closing day, and were seen 
in large numbers, on their ponies, making their way rapidly 
towards the agency. The danger feared by all was that in 
the darkness the savages might creep up to the buildings and 
with fire arrows ignite the dry roofs of the structures. But 
about midnight rain fell in torrents, preventing the possibility 
of this. It continued raining till Thursday evening, but the 
Indians kept away. That night a large quantity of oats in 
sacks, which was stored in the granary near the stable, and a 
quantity of cord wood near the fort, were piled around the 
fort in such a manner as to serve as a protection in case of a 
second attack. The water in the fort, too, had given out, and 
the spring was far away, down in the ravine. They had, 
therefore, to dig a well, and thus secured water for a few 

4 



50 THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 

days. The ammunition for the small arms had been nearly- 
used up in AVednesday's battle. The men and women were now 
employed in converting the round balls into cartridges which 
were much needed. About one o'clock on Friday the Indians 
returned in greatly increased numbers. They came apparently 
from the lower mission, down the Minnesota valley, then up 
the ravine and surrounded the fort. On came the painted 
savages, yelling like so many demons, and made a most furi- 
ous and desperate assault. But the brave men in the garrison 
knew full well that to be taken alive was certain death, both 
to themselves and to all within the fort, and each man was 
at liis post. The main attack was directed against that side 
of the works next to the river, the buildings here being frame 
structures and the most vulnerable part of the fort. This 
side was covered by the granary, stable, and one or two old 
buildings, and by the suttler's store on the west side. The 
Indians pressed on, seemingly determined to rush at once 
into the works, but were met as they reached the end of the 
timber and swept around up the ravine, with such a deadly 
fire of musketry upon them from behind the barracks and 
the windows of the quarters, and with grape and canister, 
and shell from the big guns, that they beat a hasty retreat to 
the friendly shelter of the bottom, out of musket range. 
But the shells kept screaming wildly through the air, and 
burst around and among them. The Indians soon rallied 
and took possession of the stable and out-buildings on the 
south side, from which they poured terrific volleys upon the 
garrison. They were soon driven from these buildings by 
the artillery, which shelled them out, setting the buildings 
on fire. The flames and smoke of the burning buildings, the 
wild yells of the savages, the roaring of cannon, the scream- 
ing of shells, the sharp crack of rifles and muskets, presented 
an exhibition not soon forgotten. The Indians retired hastily 
from the burning buildings, and received a shower of bullets 
as they fled into the valley below. With wild yells they 
circled around the woods, and from the tall grass, lying on 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 51 

their faces, and from the shelter of the trees, kept up the 
battle till night. Little Crow, who was leading ihem, com- 
manded them in vain to charge on the guns. They formed 
once for that purpose about sundowo, but a shell and a round 
of canister sent into their midst, closed the contest, and with 
a yell of rage and disappointment, they left. The little gar- 
rison watched five days longer, and then received re-enforce- 
ments from St. Peter. 

The settlers and their families all along the Minnesota 
valley, fled to the east to the towns, especially to Mankato, 
St. Peter, Henderson, etc. St. Peter had been a quiet town 
of 1,000 people. Thousands of fugitives had come in, till it 
was filled to overflowing. Every private and public house, 
every church, school-house, shed and even saloon, was full. 
The throngs of people filled the streets. A. line of cooking 
stoves was seen smoking along the highways. Vacant lots 
were occupied. All is clatter and rattle and din. Wagons, 
ponies, mules, oxen, cows and calves are mingled with men^ 
women and children. The live stock from thousands of 
deserted farms surround the outskirts of the town. There 
was the lowing of cattle, the neighing of horses and the cry- 
ing of lost and hungry children, besides the wounded to be 
treated. The people feared, also, that the savages might be 
on them at any time to attack St. Peter, and unless there had 
been brave defenders at New Ulm and Fort Eidgley, they 
would have come. August 22d, 1,400 soldiers arrived at St. 
Peter, on their march against the Indians. Now there was 
no longer fear of the savages, but all those helpless people 
and cattle had to be fed. The sick and wounded must be 
cared for. In St. Peter, at this time, tliere were six or seven 
thousand people besides the regular inhabitants, and 1,500 
more daily expected from New Ulm. A committee of lead- 
ing men was at once formed, and an ofiice opened for distrib- 
uting food, clothing and medicine. A bakery was established, 
furnishing 2,000 loaves a day, besides much else from private 
houses. A butcher shop was established to fsujDply 10,000 



52 THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 

rations a day. A large soup house was opened, where as high 
as 12,000 meals were supplied daily. But the live stock, horses 
and cattle had to be fed, and soon there was nothing green 
left in the streets and gardens of St. Peter. 

When the war first broke out there were but few troops 
in Minnesota. Many of the able-bodied men were in the 
south, and most of the guns and ammunition had been sent 
away with them. But as soon as Gov. Ramsey heard of the 
out-break, he appointed Col. Sibley to organize an army and 
march against the Indians. At Fort Snelling there were 
parts of some regiments, and volunteers were quickly called 
in from Minnesota. The troops first marched to St. Peter 
where they spent a few days, getting their guns and ammu- 
nition in order and securing provisions for the march. They 
then marched to Fort Ridgley. Here the men went into 
camp for a time, and were regularly drilled every day, while 
scouts were sent out to get information concerning the 
savages. At length, with ten days rations. Col. Sibley set 
out, and met the Indians at Wood Lake, where a severe bat- 
tle was fought against the Indians under Little Crow. After 
two hours' fighting, the Indians retreated. Word was at once 
sent to Little Crow not to kill any of the white prisoners in 
his hands, or the Indians would be severely punished. CoL 
Sibley feared that they, angered at their defeat, would mur- 
der the women and children who had been captured by them. 
The second day after the battle, he marched forward with 
drums beating and flags flying, and pitched his camp close 
to the Indians. Then he called upon the Indians to deliver 
up their white captives, and about one hundred and fifty 
women and children came forth from the Indian tents, and 
were kindly received and cared for by the soldiers. They 
had been cruelly treated by the savages, and could hardly 
believe that they were safe again. At the same time, about 
two hundred and fifty half-breeds, were given up whom the 
Indians had also kept as prisoners. The place where the 
captives had been recovered was named "Camp Release." 



THE SIOUX MASSACRE. 



53 



Afterward the army surrounded the camp of the Indians and 
four hundred of the warriors were captured, chained two and 
two, and guarded by the troops. They were then tried, and 
those who were found guilty of having murdered the whites 
were condemned to death. It was found tliat three hundred 
and three had been guilty of murder, but a message from 
President Lincoln forbade putting them to death until he 
had determined who was guilty. Afterwards thirty-eight of 
the savages were hung at Mankato, and some others died in 
prison. After the war was over, the settlers began to return 
to their homes and farms alono- the Minnesota river. 







54 DANIEL BOONE. 



DANIEL BOONE. 



Daniel Boone was one of the hunters who first crossed the 
Alleghany mountains from North Carolina to explore the 
forests and hunting grounds of Kentucky. 

Boone was born in Pennsylvania, but when a boy his 
father moved to North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin. 
Here he lived till a man, married, and built a log hut like the 
rest of his backwoods neighbors, and made a clearing for 
corn and vegetables. But Boone was a hunter born, loved 
the woods and the pursuit of game, such as bear, deer, pan- 
ther, squirrel, turkey, &c. As a young man he hunted upon 
the rivers flowing westward through the mountains. "In 
the valley of Boone's creek, a branch of the Watauga, there 
is a beech tree still standing on which can be faintly traced 
the words : 'D. Boone killed a bear on this tree in the year 
1760.' " He went out sometimes as a hunter, sometimes as a 
surveyor for a prominent man, Mr. Henderson, who was buy- 
ing western lands. " Boone loved the lonely life of the 
wilderness, with its bold, wild freedom. He was a tall, 
spare, sinewy man, with eyes like an eagle's and muscles 
that never tired." In spite of all his hardships he was so 
strong and temperate in all respects that he lived to the age 
of eighty-six years, a hunter to the last. 

Boone's hunting and surveying trips whetted his appetite 
for adventure. A friend of his had crossed the mountains 
and brought back a lively account of the fine forests and 



DANIEL BOONE. 55 

hunting grounds now known as Kentucky. In those days it 
was sometimes called No-man's-Land, because no one, white 
nor Indian, dwelt there. Oftener it was called " The dark 
and bloody ground,'' because the Indian tribes from the north 
and the south often met there in desperate conflict. In the 
hunting season the Indian parties from north of the Ohio 
traveled into Kentucky to hunt the deer, bear, buffalo and 
wild turkey, which abounded in the woods. At the same 
time Indian hunting parties from southern Tennessee and 
Georgia did the same, and war followed. 

In May, 1769, Boone persuaded five other men to join 
him in a journey and hunting trip across the forest-covered 
mountains into Kentucky. There was no wagon road nor 
even a path for horses, no bridges across the rivers and no 
huts to shelter them at night. They started on foot with 
their rifles and packs, first climbing two ridges of mountains 
before descending into the valley of east Tennessee. Ford- 
ing the rivers, they climbed the Cumberland mountains, 
from which they could look down upon the hilly and forest 
covered hunting grounds of eastern Kentucky. They killed 
their own game and cooked it by the camp fires. For five 
weeks they toiled through the lonely mountain forests before 
reaching the blue grass region of Kentucky, " A land of 
running waters, of groves and glades, of prairies, cane- 
brakes and stretches of lofty forests." Game was abundant. 
"The shaggy buffaloes had Ijeaten out broad roads through 
the forest, the round-horned elk abounded, and like the buf- 
falo, traveled in bands through the woods and waving grass 
lands; the deer were extraordinarily numerous, while bears, 
wolves and panthers were plentiful. Wherever there was a 
salt spring the country was thronged with wild beasts of 
many kinds." For six months the men wandered through 
these splendid hunting grounds. 

In December Boone and one companion were captured 
by Indians, but made their escape. About this time Squire 
Boone, a brother of Daniel, traveled through the immense 



56 DANIEL BOONE. 

forest, and by good luck met his brother in Kentucky. The 
other men had returned home to North Carolina and the 
"two brothers remained alone on the hunting grounds 
throughout the winter, living in a little cabin," In the 
spring Squire Boone returned to the settlements to get 
horses and ammunition, and " for three months Daniel 
remained absolutely alone in the wilderness, without salt, 
sugar or flour, and without the companionship of even a dog 
or a horse." He hunted in the day time and sometimes lay 
in the canebrakes at night without a fire, to escape the notice 
*of the Indians. He saw many signs of them and they some- 
times visited his camp, but he always watched closely to 
avoid capture. In July his brother returned, other hunters 
also joined them, making a small party, but the Indians 
became so hostile that they withdrew to the valley of the 
Cumberland In the spring of 1771 Boone returned to his 
home on the Yadkin. His discoveries had now made this 
land famous all along the border, and he with others desired 
to settle with his family in Kentucky. It was a most dan- 
gerous undertaking. That part of Kentucky where Boone 
wished to settle was more than two hundred miles from any 
other settlement, and the way between was through great 
mountains and forests. The Indians both to the north and 
south were hostile and ready to waylay and kill the settlers. 
Mr. Henderson, who wished to obtain large tracts of land 
in Kentucky, went first to the southern Indians, the Chero- 
kees, and purchased of them their right to the soil of Ken- 
tucky, but other Indians from the north laid claim to the 
same hunting grounds. One of the Cherokees said to Boone, 
" Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you 
will have much trouble in settling it." It was the land 
between the Cumberland and the Kentucky rivers. As soon 
as the purchase was made Boone was sent by Mr. Henderson 
with thirty men to make a road for pack horses, from 
the Holston, in east Tennessee, to Kentucky. This was the 
first path through the wilderness and was afterwards well 



DANIEL BOONE. 57 

known as the Wilderness road, or Boone's trail. In March 
the men started with rifles and axes. The way led through 
Cumberland Gap and across the Cumberland and other 
rivers where there were fords or shallow places fit for cross- 
ing. They cut a narrow path through bushy thickets and 
canebrakes, and marked the way through open forests by 
blazing or cutting the tree trunks with an axe. After two 
weeks hard work they reached the banks of the Kentucky 
river. As they lay around their camp fires, one morning at 
day break, they were attacked by Indians, who killed two of 
them. The others sprang to arms and drove off the savages. " 

They kept on their course and on April 1st reached an 
open place on the Kentucky and began to build a fort, after- 
wards known as Boonesborough. Henderson with a larger 
party of settlers was to follow Boone. " He took wagons 
with him but was obliged to halt and leave them in Pow- 
ell's valley; for beyond that even so skillful a pathfinder and 
roadmaker as Boone had not been able to find or make a way 
passable for wheels. Accordingly their goods and imple- 
ments were placed on pack horses and the company 
started again. They carried with them seed corn and Irish 
potatoes to plant and to use on the journey. They had bacon 
and corn meal, which was made into corn dodgers and johnny- 
cakes, which were simply cooked on a board beside the fire, 
on a hot stone or in the ashes." Sometimes a beef, from the 
herd which the emigrants drove with them, was killed, but 
generally they lived on game, deer, turkeys or buft'alo. In the 
evening after pitching tent, the men would go out in pursuit of 
the bufialo. In places the mountains were very steep, and 
sometimes it rained and snowed. The greatest hardship was 
in crossing the rivers, the banks were so rotten and miry, and 
sometimes the packs had to be ferried across on logs. "One 
day in going along a creek, they had to cross it no less than 
fifty times by very bad fords." 

They met certain of the pioneers returning in fright 
to their homes beyond the mountains, for straggling war 



58 DANIEL BOONE. 

parties Lad attacked and killed some of the settlers. In 
April the party of Henderson reached the fort that Boone 
was building, and was welcomed with a volley of guns. 
The country was looking its best, the woods being full of 
leaves and blossoms. They at once set to work to finish 
the fort. It was built of logs, in the shape of a parallelo- 
gram, two hundred fifty feet long and one hundred twenty- 
five feet wide. On each corner was 
_ DD'U ^ ^^Q story log house with loop holes 

P ° to shoot from with rifles. A stock- 

P □ ade, or high fence, was built of log 

□ mDiiD,, — i,D,,n,,r| posts sunk into the ground and firm- 
ly fastened together. Log houses 
were built along the sides, but separated from each other. 
A heavy gate stood in the center of each of the longer sides. 
The cattle and horses were driven into the fort aod kept in 
the large open space. The Indians made several attempts 
to capture this place. One day while two girls, one of them 
a daughter of Boone, were rowing in a boat within sight of 
the fort, the Indians crept up and seized the girls, carrying 
them off as prisoners. Boone and his men at once gave pur- 
suit and re-captured the girls. 

In one of the battles with the Indians, Boone and about 
twenty-five of his companions were captured and carried as 
prisoners across the Ohio. After staying awhile in the In- 
dian villages in Ohio they were brought to Detroit, the head- 
quarters of the British and Indians in the northwest. At 
Detroit most of the prisoners were ransomed and set free. 
But Black Fish, one of the great Indian chiefs, desired to 
adopt Boone as his son, and to make him a member of his tribe. 
As there was no way of escape, Boone submitted. All the 
hair was plucked from his head except the scalp-lock, he was 
then painted, decked with feathers and dressed like an Indian. 
For several months he thus lived as an Indian among them, 
and hunted with them. In the shooting matches he was 
careful not to excel the Indians, and thus to arouse their envy. 



DANIEL BOONE. 59 

They were accustomed to count carefully the number of 
bullets they gave him before gomg out to hunt, and the 
amount of powder, and required that he bring back game for 
every bullet. But Boone was more cunning than they. He 
cut the bullets in two and used only half a bullet at a time. 
After staying among the Indians several mouths, having been 
well-treated by them, he discovered that they were preparing 
to march into Kentucky to capture Boonesborough. Know- 
ing that his friends were at the post and were not prepared 
for an attack, he resolved, in spite of the danger, to escape. 
Pretending to start out on a hunt, he got away from the 
camp and quickly turned his steps toward Kentucky. It was 
a wild, hilly and rough country through wdiich he had to 
journey. The Indians soon discovered that he had deserted^ 
and started, one hundred and fifty strong, in his pursuit. 
Boone succeeded in throwing them oflf the track, and hastened 
on to the Ohio. He had some difficulty in crossing the river, 
as he was not a good swimmer, but having discovered a canoe 
hidden near the bank, he rowed across. Having crossed the 
river, he killed a wild turkey with his rifle, and obtained thus 
the first full meal he had had on his journey. In four days 
from the time of his escape, having traveled forty miles a 
day, he reached Boonesborough, to the astonishment of his 
friends. The fort indeed was in a poor state of defence, bat 
they all set to work at once for the expected attack. Provis- 
ions and game were collected, the cattle, horses and swine 
were brought in as rapidly as possible, and water carried from 
the river and spring. The stockade and houses w^ere also 
strengthened, but before they had finished their preparations, 
the Indians appeared, several hundred strong, before the fort 
and demanded a surrender. Boone asked for two days to 
consider the matter, and then went on gathering provisions. 
At the end of the time, he stood on the palisade and 
shouting to the Indians, thanked them for waiting so long, 
and ended by saying that he and his friends would defend 
the fort to the last. The Indians now offered to make peace 



60 DANIEL BOONE. 

with the backwoodsmen, and proposed that twelve men from 
among the Indians and twelve of the whites should meet in 
council outside the fort. Boone agreed to this, and selected 
twelve of his most powerful men, fearing treachery on the 
part of the Indians. After the council had begun, each of 
the Indians suddenly seized one of the white men, but the 
latter tore themselves loose from the Indians and ran back to 
the fort, while the riflemen at the fort held the Indians back 
from the pursuit. The Indians then tried to storm the place 
but the forty picked riflemen in the fort, from behind the 
stockade and loop holes of the houses, kept them at a respect- 
ful distance. The Indians climbed into the trees and shot 
down into the fort, they crept up at night and set fire to the 
houses and stockade, but the defenders j^ut out the fires. 
The Indians even attempted to dig a tunnel running under the 
wall, and to come up suddenly inside the fort, but their plan 
was seen and thwarted. After many days of vain attempts, 
having thirty-seven killed and others wounded, they decided 
to give up the attempt and marched back into Ohio. This 
was the last serious attempt made by the Indians to capture 
Boonesborough. After they had departed, the backwoods- 
men picked out from the logs of the fort, many pounds of 
lead which had been left by the Indians. 

Boone remained for a number of years one of the Ken- 
tucky leaders. He fought several battles with the Indians, 
at one of which Boone's oldest son fell at his side and the 
white's were badly defeated. But other forts were built in 
eastern Kentucky, and the Indians at last ceased to make war 
upon them. The pioneers usually lived on their clearings, 
building log huts and cutting away the forests to get fields for 
corn and gardens. But in time of danger from the Indians the 
settlers flocked, with their families and cattle, to the forts. 
Each man had at least four hundred acres of land, to which 
he made his claim good by clearing a small field and build- 
ing a log hut. Corn was his chief crop, and when out hunt- 
ing or in war the parched grains of corn in his wallet were 



DANIEL BOONE. 61 

often his only food. They also planted orchards, raised 
melons, fruits and vegetables. 

The cabin was built of unhewn logs, often only a single 
room, with a loft. "The floor was made of puncheons, great 
slabs of wood hewed out carefully, and the roof of clapboards. 
Pegs of wood were thrust into the sides of the house to serve 
instead of a wardrobe. Buck-antlers, thrust into the joists, 
held the ever-ready rifles. The table was a great clapboard 
set on four wooden legs. There were three-legged stools, and 
in the better sort of houses, old-fashioned rocking chairs. 
The couch or bed was warmly covered with blankets, bear 
skins and deer hides. In one family there was a "huge elk 
skin which the children called ellick. On cold nights they 
quarreled for its possession, as it was very warm. But if the 
hair side were turned in it became slippery, and apt to slide 
off the bed." 

As Kentucky became more thickly settled and the game 
was driven out, Boone, who loved hunting and solitude, 
pushed westward. He finally crossed over into southern Mis- 
souri and spent his old age as a hunter in the forests of that 
state. 

There were many other noted hunters and backwoods- 
men in Kentucky, besides Boone. One of them, Kenton, 
was a close friend of Boone. Once at Boonesborough he 
had saved the life of Boone, shooting an Indian who was on 
the point of tomahawking him. "Kenton was a tall man, of 
great strength and agility, famous as a runner and wrestler, 
and an unerring shot. He was a pleasant and obliging man," 
AVitli Boone as captain, he went to the Scioto on an Indian 
raid. "Pushing ahead of the rest, he was attracted by the 
sound of laughter in a canebrake. Hiding himself, he soon 
saw two Indians approach, both riding on one small pony, 
and chatting and laughing together in great good humor. 
Aiming carefully, he brought down both at once, one dead, 
and the other severely wounded. As he rushed up to finish 
his work, his quick ear canght a rustle in the cane, and look- 



62 DANIEL BOONE. 

ing round lie saw two more Indians aiming at him. A rapid 
spring to one side, on his part, made both balls miss. Other 
Indians came up, but at the same time Boone and his com- 
panions ai:)peared, running as fast as they could, while still 
keeping sheltered. A brisk skirmish followed and the 
Indians retreated. 

When Boone returned to the fort, Kenton stayed behind 
and succeeded in stealing four good horses, which he brought 
back in triumph. Much pleased with his success, he shortly 
afterward made another raid into the Indian country, this 
time with two companions. They succeeded in driving off a 
whole band of one hundred sixty horses, which they brought 
in safety to the banks of the Ohio. But a strong wind was 
blowing and the river was so rough, that in spite of all their 
efforts they could not get the horses to cross. As soon as 
they were beyond their depth, the beasts would turn round 
and swim back. The reckless adventurers could not make 
up their minds to leave their booty, and wasted so much time 
in trying to get the beasts to take to the water, that the pur- 
suing Indians came up and surprised them. Their guns had 
become wet and useless. One of them was killed, another 
escaped and Kenton himself was captured. The Indians 
asked him if Captain Boone had sent him to steal horses, 
and when he answered frankly that the stealing was his own 
i^ea, they proceeded to beat him lustily with their ram-rods. 
They staked him out at night, tied so that he could move 
neither hand nor foot, and during the day he was bound on 
an unbroken horse, with his hands tied behind him so that 
he could not protect himself from the trees and bushes. 
This was repeated every day. After three days he reached 
the town of Chillicothe, stiffened and bleeding. Next morn- 
ing he was led out to run the gR nutlet. A row of men, wo- 
men and boys, a quarter of a mile long, was formed, each 
with a tomahawk or club. At the end of the line was an 
Indian with a big drum, and beyond this was the council 
house, which, if he reached, would, for the time being, pro- 



DANIEL BOONE. 63 

tect the captive. At the moment for starting the big drum 
was beaten. Kenton sprang forward in the race. Keeping his 
wits about him, he suddenly turned to one side and darted off 
with the whole tribe after him. His wonderful speed and activ- 
ity enabled him to keep ahead and to dodge those who got in 
his way, and by a sudden double he rushed through an opening 
in the crowd and reached the council house, having been struck 
but three or four blows. He was not further molested that 
evening. Next morning a council was held to decide 
whether he should be immediately burned at the stake, or 
should first be led round through the villages. The warriors 
sat in a ring to pass judgment, handing the war club from 
one to another. Those who passed it in silence thereby voted 
in favor of sparing the prisoner for the moment, while those 
who struck it violently on the ground thus indicated their 
belief that he should be immediately put to death. It was 
decided to spare him for a little while, and Kenton was led 
from town to town. At each place he was tied to the stake 
to be switched and beaten by the women and boys; or else he 
was forced to run the gauntlet, while sand was thrown into his 
eyes and guns loaded with powder fired against his body to 
burn his flesh. Once, while on the march, he made a bold 
rush for liberty, all maimed though he was, breaking out of 
the line and running into the forest. His speed was so great 
and his wind so good that he fairly outran his pursuers; but 
by ill luck, when almost exhausted, he came against another 
party of Indians. After this he abandoned himself to dis- 
pair, and was often terribly abused by his captors. His face 
was painted black, the death color, and he was twice sentenced 
to be burned alive. But each time he was saved at the last 
moment, once at the Pickaway Plains, 'once at Sandusky, 
(once by Girty, an old comrade, who had joined the Indians, 
and once by the great chief Logan.) At last, after having 
run the gauntlet eight times, and been thrice tied to the 
stake, he was ransomed by some English traders and carried 
to Detroit. "They hoped to get valuable information from him 



64 DANIEL BOONE. 

about the border forts. Here he stayed till liis battered, 
wounded body was healed." Then, in company with two other 
Kentucky prisoners, he got some guns and escaped. Going 
straight down through the great forests of Kentucky they 
reached their homes in safety. 




GEORGE K. CLARKE. 65 



GEORGE R. CLARKE. 



[authorities: "AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS," INDIANA ROOSEVELT, 
" THE WINNING OP THE WEST."] 



More than a hundred years ago, Clarke, a yoaijg man from 
Virginia, who settled in Kentucky, formed the plan of driv- 
ing the English out of Indiana and Illinois, and, by making 
friends with the Indians, of bringing over the whole of this 
region to the side of the Americans. It was during the 
Revolutionary war, and the English, assisted by the Indian 
tribes, had strong forts at Vincennes, in Indiana, at Kaskas- 
kia, Illinois, and at Detroit, Michigan. At these places the 
Indians received guns, ammunition and white leadens, and 
were encouraged by the British to make war upon the Amer- 
ican people who were settled in Kentucky, against men, 
women and children. For it was the practice of the Indians 
in attacking the settlers in Kentucky, to kill or capture men, 
women and children. If they were not tomahawked or 
scalped, they were carried away to the Indian villHges north 
of the Ohio river and made slaves to the Indians. Clarke, 
who was only about twenty-four years old, decided to raise 
an army of Virginians and Kentuckians, go in boats down 
the Ohio, capture Kaskaskia and Vincennes from the British, 
and then compel the Indians to become the friends of <^: e 
Americans. Clarke had been in Kentucky a year and -id 
become a bold leader of war parties against the Indians, as 



QQ GEORGE R. CLARKE. . 

well as a skillful limiter and woodsman. But lie had many 
difficulties. He had no money to keep up an army and the 
men, unless well paid, were unwilling to undertake such a 
dangerous thing. 

Clarke first decided to go back over the mountains to 
Virginia to see Patrick Henry, the governor, and his council. 
He traveled on horseback through the woods and over the 
mountains, starting October 1, 1777. He was a month in 
reaching his home, having trveled six h-undred twenty miles. 
He persuaded the governor and council that it was a good 
plan, and they promised to help him, giving him $6,000 in 
paper money and promising to every man that would join 
the army three hundred acres of land. Clarke went back to 
Pittsburg and began to enlist soldiers. But nobody at first 
wished to join him. 

He succeeded, however, in persuading a few to enlist with 
him, and then, passing down the Ohio in boats into eastern 
Kentucky, some other companies joined him, making in all 
more than one hundred and fifty men. With his boats, men 
and supplies, he proceeded to the Falls of the Ohio, where 
Louisville now stands. But no settlers were established 
there when Clarke came. Just above the falls he landed on 
an island and built a block house and stored his supplies. 
He now explained to his men for the first time, his whole 
plan, and they were frightened. Some of them, from Ten- 
nessee, decided to return home, biit Clarke refused to let 
them go. In the night, however, they escaped the guard, 
waded to the Kentucky shore and took to the woods. Clarke 
sent other soldiers after them in the morning, but captured 
and brought back only a few. 

With the rest of the men, one hundred and fifty-three in 
number, Clarke now prepared to set out to capture Kaskaskia 
and Viucennes. He saw that it was a very dangerous enter- 
prise, but for that very reason he liked it the more. Getting 
into their boats they plunged down over the rapids, and put- 
ting the men to the oars they hastened night and day till 



GEORGE R. CLARKE. 67 

their boats reached an island at the mouth of the Tennessee 
river. Landing here, Clarke met a small party of American 
hunters who had just come from Kaskaskia. They reported 
that the fort was strong and in good repair, the soldiers of 
the garrison well trained, and the commander was w^atching 
the Mississippi river for any hostile force that might come 
up to capture the place. The French fur traders and boat- 
men upon the river were on the watch to give the commander 
notice of any w-ar party. Clarke, however, did not intend to 
go up the river, but to march across the country and capture 
the fort by surprise. The hunters thought this would be 
possible. They joined him eagerly, and promised to guide 
him by the shortest route to the fort. 

Clarke determined to march at once against Kaskaskia. 
Taking their new allies for guides, the little army of less 
than two hundred men started north across the wilderness, 
scouts being scattered well ahead of them, both to kill game 
and to see that their march was not discovered by any strag- 
gling Frenchman or Indian. The first fifty miles led through 
tangled and pathless forest, the toil of traveling being great. 
After that, the work was less difficult, as they got out among 
the prairies. But on these great level meadows, they had to 
take extra care to avoid being seen. Once the chief guide 
got bewdldered and the whole party was thrown into confu- 
sion. Clarke was exceedingly indignant, but in a couple of 
hours the guide found his bearings, and led them straight to 
their destination. Clarke, with his little army, moved along 
so quickly and quietly that no one was expecting him. 

On the evening of the fourth of July they reached the 
river Kaskaskia, within three miles o)f the town, which lay 
on the further bank. They kept in the woods till after it 
grew dusk and then marched silently to the little farm on 
the hither side. The family were taken prisoners and from 
them Clarke learned that some days before the townspeople 
had been alarmed at the rumor of a possible attack, but they 
were now oft" their guard. There were a great many men in 



68 GEORGE E. CLAEKE. 

the town, mostly French, the Indians having for the most 
part left. The commander had two or three times as many- 
men under him as Clarke and he would certainly make a 
good fight, if not taken by surprise. It was CLarke's audac- 
ity and the speed of his movements which gave him a chance of 
success, with the odds so heavily against him. 

Getting boats Claike ferried his men across the stream 
under cover of the darkness and in silence. He then ap- 
proached Kaskaskia in the night, dividing his force into two 
divisions, one being spread out to surround the town so that 
none might escape, while he himself led the other up to the 
walls of the fort. Inside the fort, the lights were lit, and 
through the windows came the sound of violins. The officers 
of the fort had given a ball, and the mirth-loving French, young 
men and girls, were dancing and reveling within, while the 
sentinels had left their posts. One of the captives showed 
Clarke a postern gate by the river side and through this he 
entered the fort, having placed his men at the entrance. 
Advancing to the great hall where the revel was held, he 
leaneil silently with folded arms against the door post look- 
ing at the dancers. An Indian, lying on the floor of the 
entry, gazed intently on the stranger's face as the light from 
the torches within flickered across it, and suddenly sprang to 
his feet uttering the unearthly war whoop. Instantly the 
dancing ceased, while the men ran towards the door. But 
Clarke, standing unmoved and with unchanged face, bade 
them grimly to continue their dancing, but to remember that 
they now danced under Virginia, and not under Great Britain. 
At the same time his men burst into the fort and siezed the 
officers, including the commander. — [Rocheblanc. ] 

Immediately Clarke had every street secured and sent 
runners through the town, ordering the people to keep close 
to their houses on pain of death. Before daybreak he had 
them all disarmed. The French of the town were greatly 
frightened. The unlooked-for and mysterious approach of 
the backwoodsmen, their sudden attack, their wild and un- 



GEORGE R. CLARKE. 69 

couth appearance, combined to fill the Frenchmen with fear. 
They believed also that the Kentuckians were harsh and 
cruel men. Clarke had no intention of injuring the French, 
but rather the desire of making fast friends of them. 
The next morning he called together their chief men from 
the village and told them that he desired in noway to injure, 
but to treat them as brothers and give them all the rights of 
Americans. The French were so delighted with this speech 
that they passed at once from despair to the greatest joy, 
scattered flowers through the streets, sang and danced. The 
other French settlements along the river in Illinois heard 
with pleasure of this good treatment and became at once the 
firm friends of Clarke. The French were Catholics. When 
Gibault, the priest, asked Clarke whether the Catholic church 
might be opened, the reply was that, as a commander, he had 
nothing to do with the churches, except to protect them 
from insult, and that by the laws of the Republic, the Catho- 
lic church had as great privileges as any other. 

But though he had captured the fort and made friends of 
the French, Clarke was still surrounded by the greatest diffi- 
culties. There were many tribes of war-like and hostile In- 
dians in Illinois and Indiana. The British at Vincennes and 
Detroit were much stronger than he, and had the Indians as 
allies. His own army was very small and he could expect 
no help from Virginia, which was hundreds of miles away 
and fully employed with the war of the Revolution. Besides, 
his own men were independent and willful, and their time of 
service was about up. But Clarke persuaded one hundred of 
them to enlist again for eight months, sent fifty home, and 
then enlisted seventy other men from among the French, so 
that his army was as large as before. Much of his time 
every day was spent in drilling his men, both American and 
French, and they soon became a well trained body of soldiers. 
The British still held a strong fort at Vincennes on the Wa- 
bash. Clarke, in going down the Ohio, had passed by this 
fort, because he had believed that his army was not strong 



70 GEORGE E. CLAEKE. 

enough to take it. He now wished to capture this place, but 
did not know how strong it was, nor how many British sol- 
diers defended it. The people living in the village near 
the Vincennes fort were also French. 

Clarke now informed the French at Kaskaskia that he was 
about to march with his little array to destroy the fort and 
village at Vincennes, because they belonged to and were 
friendly to the English. But the French at Kaskaskia, who 
had friends and kinsmen at Vincennes, begged him not to 
do so. For if he would wait, two of their best men, witli 
other Frenchmen, would go to Vincennes and persuade the 
French people of the village to desert the English. Clarke 
agreed to this and the two men, with Gibault, the priest, and 
others, set out in a boat for Vincennes. When they arrived 
they found only a few English soldiers at the fort, and soon 
persuaded the French inhabitants to join Clarke. They also 
went to the fort and compelled the men to pull down the 
English, and to put up the American flag. As soon as this 
news reached Clarke he appointed Captain Helm, one of his 
men, and afew French volunteers to go and take j)ossession of 
the fort and hold it. 

The Indians along the Wabash were so much astonished 
at the sudden change that they began to think of joining 
Clarke. Tabac was an Indian chief living on the river below 
Vincennes. Because his tribe controlled the mouth of the 
river, he was called "The Door of the Wabash." Clarke 
sent word to him to join the British or the Americans as he 
pleased. After thinking it over a few days, Tabac decided to 
join the "Long Knives" as he called the Kentuckians. After 
this the other tribes along the Wabash and around Vin- 
cennes, were pacified by Helm and Clarke. 

"Clarke now took upon himself the greater task of deal- 
ing with the huge horde of savages, representing every tribe 
between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, who had come 
to Illinois, some from a distance of five hundred miles. They 
wished to learn accurately all that happened and to hear for 



GEOEGE R. CLAEKE. 71 

themselves all that the "Long Knives" had to say. They 
gathered to meet him at Cahokia, (north of Kaskaskia) chiefs 
and warriors of every grade, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawat- 
omies, Sacs and Foxes, and other tribes. The straggling 
streets of the little town were thronged with hundreds of 
dark-browed, sullen-looking savages. They strutted to and 
fro in their dirty finery, or lounged about the houses, inquis- 
itive and insolent, hardly concealing their thirst for blood- 
shed and plunder." 

Fortunately Clarke knew exactly how to treat them. He 
was always on his guard, while seemingly very cool and con- 
fident. But on the third night a crowd af reckless warriors 
tried to force a way into the house where he was lodging, 
and to carry him off as a prisoner. Clarke had been suspi- 
cious of their purpose and was on the look-out. His guards 
were at hand and promptly siezed the savages. The towns- 
people also took the alarm, and were in arms in a couple of 
minutes in favor of Clarke. He instantly ordered the French 
militia to put the captives, both chiefs and warriors, in irons. 
His boldness was completely successful. The crestfallen 
prisoners humbly begged his pardon and said they were only 
trying to see whether the French were really the friends of 
Clarke. They then desired to be leleased. Up to this time 
Clarke had treated the Indians with great kindness, but now 
he refused to grant their request, and treated them with 
scorn and indifference, even when the chiefs of the other 
tribes interceded for them. While the whole town was in 
confusion, Clarke seemed wholly undisturbed, and did not 
even shift his lodgings to the fort for safety. But he secretly 
filled a large room adjoining his own, with armed men, and 
the guards were kept ready for instant action. To make his 
pretended indifierence more complete, he assembled a com- 
pany of ladies and gentlemen who danced nearly the whole 
night. The savages were much preplexed, and held several 
cormcils among themselves during the night. 

"Next morning Clarke assembled all the tribes to a grand 



72 GEORGE R. CLARKE. 

council. He then released the captive chiefs, that he might 
speak to them in the jjresence of their friends and allies. 
After all the ceremonies of Indian etiquette had been finished, 
Clarke stood up in the ring of squatted warriors, while his 
riflemen, in travel-worn hunting-shirts, clustered behind 
him. Taking the bloody war belt of wampum, he handed it 
to the chiefs whom he had taken captive, telling the assem- 
bled tribes, that he cared neither for their treachery nor 
enmity. He had a right to put them to death, but instead of 
this he would escort them outside the town, and after three days 
begin war upon them. Pointing to the war belt, he challenged 
them to see which could make it the more bloody. Now that 
he had finished talking to them he wished them to speedily 
depart." All the Indian chiefs, including the prisoners, re- 
plied in turn that they wished for p^ce and regretted that 
they had ever sided against him. 

"Clarke then rose again and told them that he came not as 
a counselor, but as a warrior, not begging for peace, but car- 
rying in his right hand, peace, in his left hand, war. To 
those who were friendly, he would be a friend, but if they 
chose war, he would call from the thirteen council fires, 
(thirteen colonies) warriors so numerous that they would 
darken the land. At the end of his speech he offered them 
the two belts of war and peace. They eagerly took the peace 
belt. But .Clarke declined to smoke the calumet (peace pipe) 
or to release all his prisoners, and insisted that two of them 
should be put to death, The Indians even consented to this, 
and two of their young men were surrendered to him, who 
advanced and sat down before him on the floor, covering their 
heads with blankets to receive the tomahawk. Then Clarke 
at last granted them full pardon and peace, and forgave the 
young men their doom. The next day after a peace council 
there was a feast, and the friendship of the Indians was fully 
won. Clarke ever after had great influence with them. They 
admired his personal prowess, his oratory, his address as a 
treaty maker, and the skill with which he led his troops. 



GEORGE R. CLARKE. 73 

Long afterwards, when the United States authorities were 
endeavoring to make treaties Avith the Indians, it was noticed 
that the latter never woukl speak to any other white general 
while Clarke was present." 

Clarke had now settled his affairs with the Indians, but 
a still greater difficulty awaited him. General Hamilton, the 
English commander at Detroit, knew well how small Clarke's 
army was. He was a man of great energy, and immediately 
began to prepare an expedition to recapture Vincennes and 
drive Chirke out of Illinois. French spies and agents were 
sent out by the English at Detroit, to stir up the Indians in 
Illinois, Indiana, and the northwest. Hamilton himself was 
to command the main army against Vincennes. "Through- 
out September every soul in Detroit was busy from morning 
till night mending boats, baking biscuits, packing provisions 
in kegs and bags, collecting artillery stores, and in every way 
preparing for the expedition. Fifteen large boats were pro- 
cured, each able to carry from 1,800 to 3,000 pounds. These 
were to be loaded with the ammunition, food, clothing, tents, 
and especially with presents for the Indians. Cattle and 
wheels were sent ahead to the most important portages on 
the route. A six pound gun was also forwarded." Before 
starting, feasts were given to the Indian tribes, at which 
oxen were roasted whole (barbecue) while Hamilton and the 
chiefs of the French sang the war song in solemn council, 
and received the pledges of armed assistance and support 
from tlie savages. 

On October 7th, the expedition left Detioit. Hamilton 
started with one hundred and seventy-seven whites, (British 
regulars, Canadian French and Detroit militia,) and sixty 
Indians. About two hundred and sixty Indians joined him 
on the way, so that upon reaching Vincennes his army was 
five hundred strong. In sailing the boats across Lake Erie 
to reach the mouth of the Maumee river, they were over- 
taken by darkness and a strong gale and were almost 
swamped. The waters of the Maumee were low and the 



74 GEOKGE K. CLARKE. 

boats were poled slowly up against the current, reaching the 
portage, where there was an Indian village, October 24th. 
Here a nine-miles portage was made to one of the sources of 
the Wabash. This stream was so low that the boats could 
not have gone down it, had it not been for a beaver dam, 
four miles below the landing place, which backed up the 
current. "A passage was cut through the beaver dam to let 
the boats through. The traders and Indians thoroughly ap- 
preciated the help given them at this difficult point by the 
beavers, (for Hamilton was following the regular route of 
traders, hunters and war parties), and none of the beavers 
of this dam were ever killed or molested. They were left to 
repair the dam, which they always speedily did whenever it 
was damaged." 

The Wabash was shallow in many places, and swampy in 
others. Frost set in and the ice cut the men as they hauled 
the boats over the shoals. The boats often needed to be 
beached and caulked, while both whites and Indians had to 
help carry the loads round the shallow places. At every In- 
dian village it was necessary to stop, hold a conference and 
give presents. At one of these villages the Wabash chiefs, 
who had made peace with Clarke, came and joined Hamilton. 
Some of Helm's scouts from Fort Yincennes were also cap- 
tured. War parties were sent out to surround Yincennes 
and cut off any messengers that might be sent to Clarke or 
to Kentucky. When Hamilton finally reached Yincennes, 
all the French deserted Clarke and joined the English, so that 
Helm was left with only two or three Americans, and they 
were forced to surrender. 

Hamilton's spies now brought him word that Clarke had 
but one hundred and ten men in Illinois, while Hamilton had 
five hundred. Had he pushed forward at once to attack 
Clarke, he might have captured his force. . He did not fear 
that Clarke, with such a small body of men, would try to 
recapture Yincennes. He allowed the Indians to scatter to 
their homes for the winter and the Detroit militia to return 



GEOEGE E. CLAEKE. 75 

to Detroit. Eighty or ninety white soldiers were kept at the 
fort and about as many Indians. In the spring he expected 
to begin the war again on a Large scale with a thousand men 
and light cannon with which to batter down the stockades. 
He expected not only to defeat Clarke in Illinois, but to drive 
the Americans oat of Kentucky. Clarke, on the other hand, 
could expect no re-enforcements from Kentucky or Virginia, 
nor any further aid from the French in Illinois. In the 
spring Hamilton was certain to have an army so strong that 
he could not resist it. For a long time Clarke could not get 
exact information of what had happened at Yiucennes, nor of 
the condition of things there. But at last news came from a 
French friend of Clarke who had been at Vincennes. He 
was a trader, named Vigo, from St. Louis. Having gone to 
Vincennes, he was at first imprisoned by Hamilton, but after- 
wards was released and returned to tell Clarke the news. He 
said there were eighty white men, besides Indians, with 
Hamilton in the garrison, with three pieces of cannon and 
swivels. There was also at the fort plenty of ammunition and 
provisions. It was now the last of January, and early in the 
spring other British soldiers, from Canada, besides one 
thousand Indians, would join Hamilton. Clarke at once de- 
cided to march with his one hundred and seventy men and 
attack Vincennes before spring opened. He first, however, 
equipped and sent out a large row-galley with small cannon 
and forty men. It was to go up the Ohio and Wabash and 
be ready to assist the soldiers who were to march across 
southern Illinois by land. 

With his one hundred and seventy Kentuckians and 
French he set out from Kaskaskia, February 7. The route 
by which they had to go was two hundred and forty miles in 
length. It lay through a beautiful and well watered country 
of groves and prairies, but at that season the march was one 
of hardships and fatigue. There were no roads, no houses 
for shelter. There were no paths through the prairies and 
swamps, no bridges over the swollen streams. The weather 



76 GEORGE R. CLARKE. 

had grown mild so that at first there was no suffering from 
the cold, but it rained, and the melting ice caused great fresh- 
ets, and all the low lauds and meadows were flooded. 
"Clarke's great object was to keep his troops in good spirits. 
Of course he and his officers shared every hardship and led 
in every labor. He encouraged the men to hunt game and to 
feast on it like the Indian, each company in turn inviting the 
other to the smoking and plentiful banquet. One day they 
saw a great herd of buffaloes and killed many. They had 
no tents, but at nightfall they kindled large camp-fires and 
spent the evening merrily around the piles of blazing logs, 
in hunter fashion, feasting on beans, ham and buffalo hump, 
elk saddle, venison haunch, and the breast of the wild turkey, 
some singing of the chase and of war, others dancing after 
the manner of the French trappers and wood runners. Thus 
they marched hard but gleefully and in good spirits until, 
after a week, they came to the drowned lands of the Little 
Wabash. The channels of its two branches were a league apart, 
but the flood was so high that they now formed one great river 
five miles wide, the overflow of water being three feet deep in 
the shallowest part of the plains between and alongside the 
main channels. Clarke instantly started to build a pirogue, or 
boat, out of the trunk of a large tree. Then crossing over 
the first channel, he put up a scaffold upon the edge of the 
flooded plain. He ferried his men over and brought the bag- 
gage across and placed it upon the scaffold; then he swam 
the pack-horses over, loaded them as they stood belly deep in 
the water beside the scaffold, and marched his men on." They 
crossed the second channel in the same manner. 

The next day they came to a branch of the Wabash which 
was so flooded that they could not cross. Having found a 
dry place to camp, they waited till morning and marched 
down to where this branch joined the Wabash. They were 
now ten miles from Viucennes, seven of them being the val- 
ley of the Wabash, covered to a depth of three or more feet 
with water. They were entirely out of provisions, and the 



GEORGE R. CLARKE. 77 

boat was not expected for several days. Four men were sent 
out to see if they could not find boats opposite Vincennes, 
but they could not get to the Wabash. Rafts were then- 
made and four other men were sent to search for boats, but 
they found nothing after wading in the water all day and 
night. One little boat was found by another party, and two 
men were sent with it to search for the big boat that was 
coming up the river. For two days now, the men had been 
working hard, with nothing to eat, and the Frenchmen began 
to talk of going home. To keep the men busy, Clarke set 
them at work making canoes on the bank. At noon they 
saw a party of Frenchmen from Vincennes coming down the 
river in a boat, and called to them. They came ashore, told 
Clarke that Hamilton knew nothing of the little army, and 
that the French people at the village were friendly to Clarke. 
They said, also, there were two canoes adrift on the river 
above. One of these Clarke secured. This day one of the 
men killed a deer and brought it in, and this gave a bite to 
eat for each of the one hundred and seventy men. 

They now had boats enough to ferry the army across the 
main cliannel, and they did so the next day, and the men 
walked three miles through the water, in places up to their 
necks. It rained all day and they camped on a little hill 
that night without food. The next day they marched three 
miles further on througii the water with nothing to eat. That 
night the weather turned cold and the wet clothing of the 
men froze on them. The next morning the men were nearly 
tired out. There were still four miles of water to wade 
through, breast deep. Clarke encouraged his men to follow, 
and plunged first into the water. It was covered with a tliiu 
ice, but the men gave a shout and followed him. At last 
they reached the edge of the woods where they thought the 
water stopped, but the dry land was further on. Some of 
the men gave out, too weak to walk. The canoes ran back 
and forth and helped the weak to reach the land. As they 
touched the solid ground many fell down, hardly able to 



78 GEORGE E. CLARKE. 

stand any longer. But the day was bright, fire was kindled 
in the woods, their clothes were di'ied, and, luckier still, some 
squaws and children came along in a boat with a quarter of 
a buffalo, some corn, tallow and kettles. These were cap- 
tured, and "after eating some broth" the men felt better. 
Warmed, dried and refreshed, they began to jest over the 
hardships they had just passed through. 

But the fort and village were not yet captured, and 
Clarke's little army was so small that if his enemies knew 
how few soldiers he had, it would be hard to capture the 
place. Clarke decided first to seize the French village 
near the fort and to make the people think his army was 
much larger than it really was. In the afternoon he cap- 
tured a Frenchman who was out shooting ducks. This man 
was sent back to the French village with word that Clarke 
with his army, was about to storm the place and for all the 
people in the village to keep quiet unless they wished to be 
severely punished. Towards evening, as it grew dark, Clarke 
approached the village on the lowlands where his men could 
not be seen, and suddenly entered the town and took pos- 
session of it. Hamilton knew nothing of Clarke's army till 
the village was taken and the Kentuckians began to fire on 
the fort. 

Clarke threw up an intrenchment across the road in front 
of the Tnain gate of the fort, and that night the British in 
the fort and the Americans in the town kept up a constant 
firing of guns without doing any damage. In the morning 
early, Clarke sent a demand for the immediate surrender of 
the fort, but Hamilton refused. While they were waiting 
for an answer, Clarke's men cooked and ate their breakfast, 
the first complete meal they had had for several days. Then 
the firing began again. The fort was surrounded on all 
sides, and not a man could show his face or hand without 
great danger. The Americans were fine riflemen and could 
hit a silver dollar at a distance of one hundred yards. They 
kept behind houses, earth works and logs near the fort, and 



GEORGE E. CLARKE. 79 

kept up such a constant fire of guns that several British 
soldiers were killed. The British could not use their cannon 
because, every time a port hole opened, bullets flew into it 
too fast. Hamilton iu the afternoon sent out a flag of truce, 
and soon made arrangements with Clarke to surrender the 
British, the fort and all their supplies. The next morning 
Clarke marched in and took possession and changed its 
name to Patrick Henry. The Indian tribes of Illinois and 
Indiana now came to Clarke at Vincennes and made peace. 
From this time on, Vincennes and Kaskaskia remained in 
the hands of the Americans and were never again taken by 
the Eno-lish. 




80 CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 



MAlilETTA. 

The pioneers who formed the first settlement at Marietta, 
Oliio, were Yankees from Massachusetts. In 1785, Gen. 
Tapper and Ruf us Putnam, botii of Massacliusetts, began to 
organize a company for tiie purpose of purcliasing land and 
forming settlements in Ohio. The Ohio Company was formed 
in 1787 and five and one-half million acres of land, north of 
the Oliio and east of the Scioto rivers, were purchased of 
Congr'^ss. The directors of the Ohio Company had a meet- 
ing in Boston in November, 1787, and elected Rufus Putnam 
superintendent of their colony. At the same meeting, a 
number of workmen, including carpenters, boat builders and 
blacksmiths, were employed to make preparations for a 
journey to the Ohio valley. Tools, wagons and horses were 
procured, and in December, the mechanics and others met at 
Danvers, Massachusetts, from which village they soon started 
for the far toesf. They took the long, dreary way over the 
Alleghanies, and by the old Indian patli over Braddock's 
road, and after nearly eight weeks journeying, reached the 
Yough, a branch of the Monongahela, at a point called 
Simrall's ferry. The severities of the winter prevented their 
going farther, and the colony remained upon the Yough 
till the returning spring. Gen. Putnam, with a smaller 
party of leading men and surveyors, left Hartford in Janu- 
ary, and pressed forward to the same meeting place. 



CINCINNATI AND MAIUETTA. 81 

"And now tlie stalwart New England boat builders plied 
their sharp axes, keen saws and sounding- hammers in build- 
ing the " Maijjiower,'' which was to carry these new pilgrims 
to a New World. This boat was the largest that had ever 
descended the Ohio. Its length was forty-five feet and 
its width twelve feet, and it was capable of bearing a burden 
of fifty tons. The Mayflower was strongly built, with sides 
proof against the bullets of the red savages. She was placed 
in command of Capt. Duval, a brave commander, who helped 
build the first ship launched on the Ohio river." On the 
afternoon of April 2, 1788, the Mayflower, accompanied by a 
flat-boat and several canoes, was unfastened from her moor- 
ings at Simrall's ferry, to float down the Yough to the waters 
of the Monongahela, and onward to the Ohio. Having passed 
Fort Pitt April 7th, they reached the mouth of the Muskin- 
gum and landed on the east bank, about four hundred yards 
above its mouth, nearly opposite Fort Harmar. The little 
company that landed at this time, numbered forty-eigiit souls. 
On the first of July, nearly three mouths later, eighty-four 
more settlers arrived from the east. " They, had been nine 
weeks upon their journey, toiling in the tedious journey 
through a rough frontier wilderness, with their wagons, cat- 
tle and stock of every kind. Eight weeks of travel, with a 
regular encampment each night, brought them to Wheeling, 
about eighty miles above Marietta, on the Ohio. After sev- 
eral days of preparation, they procured a large Kentucky 
flat-boat, into which the colonists were crowded with their 
goods, and after two days floating upon the current, they 
landed beside the Mayflower, at the mouth of the Muskingum." 

While the first settlers were building their houses, they 
used the Mayflower, which had a roof, as a floating home and 
as a protection from the weather. Only two days after the 
arrival of the second colony, they met to celebrate the fourth 
of July, and an oration was spoken by Judge Varnum. Ihe 
cannon on the boat ushered in the day. Many of thes< ' ders 
were Revolutionary soldiers and ofiicers who had come west 

6 



82 CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 

with tlieir families to improve their fortunes. They were 
men of education and refinement, and carried these advant- 
ages into tiie west. They had employed a pious and zealous 
young minister to teach, not only religion and morality to 
parents and adults, but the rudiments of learning and reli- 
gion to the children. This was the Rev. Daniel Story, from 
Worcester, Massachusetts, who came out with the colonists 
the following summer, and for many years continued to labor 
among the settlers. 

Early in July, Governor St. Clair, who had been appointed 
by congress, and the judges of the court came out and began 
to perform their duties. A public meeting of the citizens 
was called, when the governor made an address to the people 
and explained to them the new government. The county of 
Washington was organized west of the Muskingum, with 
Marietta as the county seat. The year before the settlement, 
in 1787, congress had passed certain laws in regard to the 
Northwest Territory, which were known as the "ordinances of 
1787." They were as follows: No person should be molested 
on account of his worship or religion. Good faith was to be 
kept with the Indians. Their lands were not to be taken 
from them unlawfully. There were to be no slaves in the 
new teriitory, except that slaves, escaping from Kentucky, 
Virginia, etc., should be returned to their masters. 

On September 9th, the laws of the colony were read and 
posted on the. trunk of a tree. Both the Muskingum and the 
Ohio, at Marietta, are bordered with high bluffs, which leave 
only a narrow strip of level land along the rivers. This part 
of Ohio is very hilly, almcst mountainous, and the settlers 
found later that the valleys further west were better for 
farming than the valley of the Muskingum. 

On the opposite side of the river was fort Harmar. The 
following is a description of the fort as it was in 1788: 

" The fort stood very near the point on the western side 
of the Muskingum, and upon the second terrace above or- 
dinary flood water. It was a regular pentagon in shape, with 



CINCINNATI AND MAKIETTA. 83 

bastions on each side, and its walls enclosed but little more 
than three- qua iters of an acre. The main walls of defence, 
called curtains, were each one hundred and twenty feet long, 
and about twelve or fourteen feet high. They were con- 
structed of logs laid horizontally. The bastions were of the 
same height as the other walls, but unlike them, were formed 
of palings or timbers set upright into the ground. Large 
two-story log buildings were built in the bastions to accom- 
modate the officers and their families, and the barracks for 
the troops were erected along the curtains, the roofs sloping 
toward the center of the enclosure. They were divided into 
four rooms of thirty feet each, supplied with fire places, and 
sufficient for the accommodation of a regiment of men. 
From the roof of the barracks, looking toward the Ohio 
river there rose a watch tower, surmounted by the flag of the 
United States." 

"In the meantime it was evident from the hostile bearing 
of the Indians, that the colony (on the otlier side of the 
river) could not expect perfect security. It was resolved to 
convert the block house into a regular stockade or fortified 
statioi). Under General Putnam the work was commenced, 
and completed the next year. The walls of the main build- 
ings formed a regular parallelogram of one hundred and 
eighty feet on each side. Each corner was protected later in 
1791, by a strong projecting block house, twenty feet square 
in the lower story, and twenty-four in the upper. Each block 
house was surmounted by a tower or sentry box, bullet proof, 
and the curtains or sides of the parallelogram were protected 
by a range of sharpened pickets, inclining outward. The 
whole was surrounded by a strong palisade ten feet high and 
Securely planted in the ground, beyond which there was a 
range of abatis. 

The buildings were constructed of timber four inches 
thick and neatly dovetailed at the corners, two stories high 
and covered with good shingle roofs. The rooms were large, 
and provided with good fire-places and brick chimneys. A 



84 CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 

guarded gateway stood on the west and south, and over the 
gateway facing the Muskingum, on the south, was a large 
room surmounted by a belfry in w liich was hung the church- 
going bell. The whole range of buildings was well supplied 
with portholes for firing. Such was the outline of the first 
regular station in the northwest, known as the Campus Mar- 
tius. Its bastions and tower, all white- washed and glittering 
in the sun, reminded one of some ancient castle." 

In the meantime the plan of a regular town w^as laid ofi" 
on the banks of the Ohio, above the mouth of the Muskin- 
gum. Streets and squares were marked off, and the town 
called Marieiia, in honor of Marie Antoinette, Queen of 
France. During the summer and autumn the settlements in 
Washington county were increased by the arrival of new 
emigrants from beyond the mountains, as well as from Penn- 
sylvania and western Virginia. 

In ti\e spring other settlements were established at Belle- 
pre and Newbury, lower dowm the Ohio river. Stockades 
were also built in these places for protection against the 
Indians. 

CINCINNATI. 

Soon after the purchase by the Ohio company of land 
along the Muskingum, Judge John Symmes, of New Jersey 
purchased of the government six hundred thousand acres, (at 
sixty cents an acre,) between the Great and Little Miami riv- 
ers. Symmes published a pamphlet, announcing his pur- 
chase on the Miami and stating the terms on which the lands 
would be sold to settlers. He collected a company of thirty 
colonists and these, conveyed by eight wagons, each drawn 
by four horses, proceeded from New Jersey across the moun- 
tains and arrived at Mayesville, Kentucky, in November, 1788. 

Major Stites, meanwhile, had purchased ten thousand 
acres of Simmes and was waiting at Mayesville with a com- 
pany of settlers. On the sixteenth of November Major 
Stites, with a company of twenty-six, four of whom were 
women and two boys, took a boat and descended the river. 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 85 

They landed a little after sunrise on the morning of Novem- 
ber 18, below the mouth of the Miami river on a spot that is 
now within the limits of Cincinnati. "After making fast the 
boat, they ascended the steep bank and cleared away the un- 
derbrush in the midst of a paw-paw thicket, where the women 
and children sat down. They next placed sentinels at a small 
distance from the thicket and, having first united in a song 
of praise to Almighty God, upon their knees they offered 
thanks for the past and prayer for future protection. This 
little colony contained some of the most intelligent and 
enterprising men who settled in this whole region, who left 
also many children to perpetuate their name. A few log 
houses were erected for dwellings, a block house for protec- 
tion against Indian hostility, and such other outbuildings as 
were necessary to a permanent settlement. Major Stites then 
proceeded to lay off a town in the woods. The land at this 
point was so fertile that from nine acres were raised nine 
hundred and sixty bushels of Indian corn. The Indians 
came to them and were roughly treated at first by some 
of the settlers, but they were very submissive, desired to 
trade and held out the right hand of peace. In a few days 
this good will ripened into intimacy, the hunters frequently 
taking shelter at night at the Indian camps. The red men 
and squaws spent whole days and nights at the settlement, 
regaling themselves with whisky. This friendly conduct of 
the Indians was owing to the kindness of Symmes himself. 
In the preceding autumn, while exploring the country about 
the Great Miami, he had prevented some Kentuckians, who 
were with him, from injuring a band of savages who came 
within their power. 

In January, 1780, however, there was a great flood in the 
Ohio valley. Only one house escaped the deluge. The 
soldiers Avere driven from the ground floor of the block- 
house into the loft, and from the loft into the only boat that 
was left them. Muskingum was also damaged by the same 
great flood. 



86 CINCINNATI AND MA.RIETTA. 

About six weeks after this first settlement, Israel Ludlow 
and Robert Patterson led a colony of twenty persons to a 
point five miles lower down the Ohio and opposite the mouth 
of the Licking. "They landed at a little cove, now Sycamore 
street, Cincinnati. Three log houses were built and other 
preparations made for receiving families in the spring. The 
site was a beautiful wooded first bottom, on the immediate 
bank of the Ohio, about sixty feet above low water mark, 
and stretched away upward of three hundred yards from the 
river, where a second liank or terrace rose gently forty feet 
higher. The second bottom extended back to the base of 
the bluffs, more than half a mile from the shore. The 
whole was covered with a heavy forest. On the lower bot- 
tom were chiefly sycamore, sugar maple and black walnut- 
On the upper terrace were chiefly beech, oak and walnut. 
The courses of streets were marked upon the trees of the 
lower bottom, while the corners of lots were shown by stakes 
driven in the ground. This settlement did not grow rapidly 
the first year. It was a dangerous point, immediately on the 
line of the old Indian war path between Ohio and Kentucky, 
and settlers were not anxious to make it their home." But in 
the fall of 1789 it was desired by the United States govern- 
ment to build a fort and station troops here. The spot 
selected for it was opposite the mouth of the Licking, within 
the town site of Cincinnati. A company of seventy soldiers 
arrived from Fort Harmar to begin the work. In January, 
1790, the governor wrote: "This will be one of the most solid, 
substantial wooden fortresses, when finished, of any in the 
western territory. It is built of hewn timber, a .perfect 
square, and two stories high, with four block houses at the 
angles." It was named Fort Washington. About the last of 
December, 1789, General Harmar arrived with three hundred 
regular troops, and Fort Washington shortly afterwards be- 
came the headquarters of the northwestern army and the 
residence of the governor [St. Clair.] 

Other settlements had been made along the river and now 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 87 

the county of Hamilton was foi'med with Cincinnati as 
county seat. It began now to be a place of considerable im- 
portance, and soon grew to be the center of fashion and 
culture in the west, and attracted many persons of intelli- 
gence and enterprise. Frame houses began to appear, and 
during the following summer (1789) forty log cabins were 
added as the dwellings of so many families. 

In the two years after the first settlers arrived at Mus- 
kingum, settlements had multiplied. In Washington county 
there were four hundred and forty seven men enrolled in the 
militia, and in all twenty-five hundred people. In Hamilton 
county there were about as many men and two thou- 
sand people in all. Besides these there were the regular 
troops at Fort Washington and Fort Harmar. 

The Indians in Ohio from the first had been, for the most' 
part, unfriendly. They disliked seeing the white men taking 
up the fine valleys of the Oiiio. They lurked akout the 
settlements, stealing and watching the buiUling- of forts. 
They began to waylay travelers and small parties, even near 
the large settlements. A number of whites had been mur- 
dered. All male settlers were obliged to carry arms when 
about their work in the fields, wliiie sentinels were posted in 
the fields, on a stump or hill, to give notice of approaching 
danger. Such Avas the dread of an Indiam ambush, that 
people dared not leave the enclosure. 

In January, 1791, the Indians prepared to destroy the 
settlement at Big Bottom on the Muskingum. This place 
had been imprudently occupied a few months before, against 
the advice of the more experienced, by a party of young 
men who had been delighted with the beauty of the lands. 
The whole company ctmsisted of about twenty-five persons, 
including several women with their children. They had 
erected a block house and several log cabins, and seemed to 
enjoy perfect security from the Indians. On the second of 
January, a party of twenty-five Indians advanced to the brow 
of the hill overlooking the Muskingum valley. Here they 



OO CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 

concealed themselves, patiently observing the movements of 
the little colony during the day, until after the evening twi- 
light, when, descending, they advanced to the assault. Di- 
rected by the fires within, they divided into parties to attack 
several houses at the same time. The whites in the block 
house were sitting around the supper table, by the cheerful 
fire light, and their guns were standing in the corner of the 
room. The houses being surrounded by the Indians, one 
large Mohawk gently pushed open the door, while his com- 
rades lired at the men at the table, who dropped one after 
another. A woman seized an axe and made a desperate blow 
at the Mohawk who held the door, and inflicted upon him a 
terrible wound. She was immediately slain by a tomahawk, 
with the other inmates. Another cabin was entered at the 
same time by another party of Indians, Avho bound the in- 
mates and made them prisoners. The occupants of a third 
cabin, U^ing alarmed by the report of the guns at the block 
house, escaped into the woods and concealed themselves from 
the enemy. The Indians, failing to find them, proceeded to 
]3lunder the houses of everything valuable, and then set fire 
to them. They secured the prisoners, and then feasted by 
the light of the burning houses. The whole number killed 
in this settlement was thirteen, of whom eleven were young 
men, besides one woman and two children. Five persons, 
including four men and one boy, were taken as captives to 
Detroit. Within a few days, all the settlements on the Mus- 
kingum, beyond the guns of Fort Harmar, were broken up, 
and those who did not make a speedy escape were killed or 
taken prisoner. 

About the same time, attacks were made upon the settle- 
ments in other places, especially about Cincinnati. Colerain, 
a large station seventeen miles north of Fort Washington, 
was attacked. Captain Kingsbury, with eighteen regular 
troops and fourteen others, led the defense. The women 
supplied the riflemen with bullets, and when the lead was 
expended, they melted their pewter plates and spoons into 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 89 

bullets. Three hundred warriors appeared before the place 
and demanded its surrender. The demand was promptly re- 
fused, and the attack at once began and was kept up with 
spirit for twenty-four hours. The Indians, fearing re-en- 
forcements from the garrison at Fort Washington, suddenly 
retreated, and an hour later Captain Freeman, with sixty- 
three soldiers from Cincinnati, came to the assistance of the 
station. 

The emigrants from the east, while coming down the Ohio 
in boats to the settlements in Kentucky and Ohio, were often 
attacked, from tlie shore or from canoes, by Indians. Cap- 
tain AVilliam Hubbel was descepding the river in a flat boat, 
to Kentucky, with twenty persons, nine men, besides women 
and children. The Indians were upon the lookout for them, 
and one morning early, one of them from the shore tried to 
draw them near the bank by asking to be taken on board. 
But the emigrants kept away and soon saw several boat loads 
of Indians approaching them. The whites threw everything 
overboard that could hinder them, such as tables, chairs, &c., 
so as to clear the deck, and then hid themselves behind boxes, 
trunks, and railings with guns ready to fire. The Indians 
surrounded the Hat boat, on both sides, at stern and prow, 
and raked every part of the deck. Two of the white men 
were badly wounded in the beginning and captain Hubbel 
was soon shot through the right arm. But as the Indians 
came up close to the boat and tried to jump on deck, he 
rushed forward with two pistols and, having emptied them 
into the foremost of the Indians, he seized a stick of fire- 
wood, and wounding one of the Indians severely, drove the 
others back into their boat. All but four of the white men 
were now severely wounded, but they drove back the Indians 
a second time. "Unfortunately the boat now drifted to with- 
in twenty yards of the shore, and the Indians came run- 
ning down the bank. Two men, the only ones unhurt, took 
the oars; they were hidden from view, and protected by the 
side of the boat and by blankets in her stern. For twenty 



90 CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 

miimtes they were exposed to a heavy fire. Suddenly, and 
providentially, the boat was carried by the current to the 
middle of the stream, out of the reach of the enemies' fire. 
The little band of men, women and children, now out 
of danger, forgot their fatigue and wounds and gave 
three hearty cheers for their deliverance. Out of nine men 
three were killed and four severely wounded. The women 
and children were all uninjured except one little boy, who, 
after the battle, came to the captain and requested him to 
take a ball out of his head. A bullet had gone through the 
side of the boat and lodged under the skin of his forehead. 
When this was removed the brave little fellow said: "That is 
not all, Captain," and raising his arm exhibited a piece of 
bone at the point of his elbow, which had been shot oft" and 
hung by the skin. His mother, who knew nothing of all 
this, now exclaimed: "Why did you not tell us of this?" "Be- 
cause," he replied, "the Captain ordered us to be silent 
during the fight and I thought you would make a noise if I 
told you of it." [F. S. Drake, "Indian History for Young 
Folks. J 

The Indians were not willing to see their old homes and 
hunting grounds in Ohio taken possession of by the Avhites, 
and they became more and more displeased with the building 
of forts and stockades at Cincinnati, Marietta and at other 
stations north of the Ohio. Governor St. Clair tried, by all 
means, to make peace with them, and held councils with them 
upon the upper Muskingum, but the Indian chiefs refused 
to meet him and were encouraged by the English at Detroit 
to remain hostile. When it was found that the Indians were 
determined upon war, General Harmar, with fourteen hun- 
dred men, marched north into the valley of the Maumee. 
The Indian towns along the upper part of that river were 
destroyed by General Harmar, but in marching against the 
Indians his army was twice surprised, defeated and driven 
back. 

The next year Governor St. Clair himself, Avith about 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 91 

two thousand men, mai-clied north against the Indians. His 
army had reached the upper Wabash and was encamped 
near a stream with thick woods, bushes and fallen trees all 
about the camp. One morning before sunrise, Little Turtle 
surrounded this camp with his Indians, and as the men were 
getting breakfast, rushed with yells upon them. The militia 
were frightened and fled. The regulars stood firm, but the 
Indians from benind the trees and logs rapidly shot down 
the soldiers. Several times the troops charged upon the 
concealed Indians, but could only drive them back a short 
distance into the woods, where they kept up their firing. 
After several hours of fighting, the army began a retreat, 
which was soon turned into flight. The Indians rushed 
after, yelling and scalping. Nearly nine hundred white men 
were killed on the battle ground. "St. Clair, who behaved 
gallantly, had three horses shot under him. Eight balls 
passed through his coat and hat. Many gallant officers were 
slain." [Drake.] The whole country was in mourning over 
this defeat, while the Indians were more confident than ever. 
Gen. Antliony AYayne was now appointed to organize an 
army and chastise the Indians. In 1794 he marched cau- 
tiously northward from the Ohio, and built Fort Recovery, 
on the old battle ground of St. Clair's defeat. Here Little 
Turtle, with his Indians, attacked him and Avas badly de- 
feated. Two months later, "on the morning of August 20th, 
he encountered the Indian lines nearly two miles back from 
the Maumee river, (near the rapids,) behind thickets of trees, 
prostrated by a tornado, so that the engagement that followed 
was called the battle of the ' Fallen Timber.' His front 
line of militia received a hot fire and fell back. The charge 
was then sounded. The second and third lines advanced; 
the dragoons on the right penetrating the fastness by a nar- 
row passage at the river, and turning, sword in hand, upon the 
flank. The front line broke through the brush-wood, the In- 
dians gave way before the troops on the left came up, and in 
an hour were driven more than two miles." [American Com- 



92 



CINCINNATI AND MARIETTA. 



monwealths, Ohio.] The power of the Indians was now 
broken, tlieir fields and villages were wasted and burnt. 
Peace was finally made, and even Detroit surrendered to the 
United States. The whole northwest had been secured to 
the Americans. — [Centennial History, and Commonwealth 
Series, Ohio.] 




LINCOLN. 93 



LINCOLN. 



[authokity: century magazine.] 



In 1781 or 1782, the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln 
moved from Virginia to Kentucky. Settling in the forest 
about twenty miles east of Louisville, he cleared a small 
farm and built a log house. One morning in 1786, with his 
three sons, he was at work, in the edge of the clearing, mak- 
ing fence. While they were at this work some Indians crept 
up behind the bushes near by and shot the father. Mordecai 
at once ran to the house and obtained a gun. Pointing it 
through a loop-hole, he aimed at an Indian who was about 
to lift up Thomas, his youngest brother, a boy of seven. 
The Indian fell back at the shot and Thomas ran to the 
house. Josiah, the other brother, had fled to a fort a few miles 
away to bring help. From the loft of the house Mordecai 
kept firing at the Indians, and held them back till Josiah re- 
turned with help from the fort, and all the Indians fled. 

Thomas, afterward the father of Abraham Lincoln, 
learned the trade of a carpenter. In 1806 he married Nancy 
Hanks, whose family had also come from Virginia. She 
could read auii write, and taught her husband to write his 
own name. They settled upon a little farm about seventy- 
five miles south of Louisville. The cabin was on the branch 
of a small creek. At this cabin in 1809, about three miles 
from Hodginsville, was born Abraham Lincoln. Until he was 



94 LINCOLN. 

eight years old he lived a lonesome life playing in the woods, 
with no toys or playthings at home. With his sister Sarah, 
he went to school long enough to learn his letters and a little 
more. His home was very poor and his mother worked hard. 
When Abraham was eight years old his father decided to 
leave Kentucky and move into southern Indiana, because he 
heard there were rich unoccupied lands there. He built a 
rude boat and put on board a kit of tools and some barrels 
of whiskey. On the way down the river his flat boat ran 
aground and his goods sank in the water, but he saved the 
tools and part of the whiskey. Having landed on the north 
side, he made a day's journey into the forest and selected a 
good spot for a farm. It was necessary to walk back to Ken- 
tucky to get his family. All of their clothing, bedding and 
furniture, including pans and kettles, were packed upon the 
backs of two borrowed horses. After crossing the Ohio 
river into Indiana, they also borrowed a wagon, and then, by 
cutting a way through the trees and bushes, reached their 
new home, a mile and a half east of Gentryville. Thomas 
Lincoln, the father, with his kit of tools, Avas expected to 
build them a house, and with his ritle, to supply them with 
food from the forest. .They at first built a shed of poles, 
open at one side, in which they lived for a year. In the 
meantime ground was cleared of tiie trees, for corn and for 
a cabin. A cabin was soon after begun, but was occupied 
before it was complete, before windows, doors and a floor were 
put in. There were no chairs except three-legged stools. 
The walls of the hut were built up of rough logs, notched 
and lapping over each other at the corners. A bed was built 
in one corner of the log hut. There was but one bed-post, 
a crotched stick, upon which were laid the ends of two hick- 
ory poles, the other ends of the poles being fastened into 
holes in the logs of the wall. Rough slabs were laid across 
from these poles to the logs at the side, and a bag of dried 
leaves was then thrown upon the slabs. The boy slept on a 
bag of leaves in the loft, which he reached by climbing, not 



LINCOLN, 95 

the stairs, but a ladder of wooden pegs driven into the logs 
of the wall. 

The first summer Thomas raised corn enough for his fam- 
ily, and as the deer were abundant abont the salt licks not 
far from his cabiu, he was able, usually, to kill a fine deer 
after Avaiting an hour or two. The meat of a deer would 
last the family a week, and the skin, when tanned, supplied 
clothing and shoes. The house was poorly furnished, the 
fioor was the hard earth, while a few pots and kettles, used 
at the fire-place, and a table, which was a big log standing 
on four wooden pegs, completed the outfit. There was no 
door, but the entrance was hung wnth bear skins to keep out 
the cold. The country was so new that the cabins of the settlers 
were far apart, and the damp woods surrounded the little 
clearings in all directions. There was plenty of game be- 
sides deer, squirrels and bears. When Lincoln was only 
eight years old he shot a wild turkey, which he carried home 
with great pleasure. 

In the fall of the first year a fatal disease, called the 
milk-sickness, broke out among the settlers. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sparrow, an uncle and aunt of Lincoln, with their children, 
had joined them from Kentucky. They were both taken sick 
and died. No physicians and no good medicines were to be 
had. Mrs. Lincoln soon after took sick, and, in a few days, 
died. Thomas Lincoln made wooden cofiins for them, and 
they were quietly buried in a small clearing in the forest. 
Little Abraham 'was grieved that his mother should be so 
buried without any religious service. At this time he wrote 
his first letter, asking Mr. Elkin, a minister, to come to In- 
diana to preach his mother's funeral sermon. Several months 
afterward the preacher came, and the service was held. 
This winter after his mother's death was very dreary. About 
a year afterwards Thomas Lincoln married a Mrs. John- 
ston of Kentucky, who astonished Abraham and his sister by" 
bringing with her, when she came, some good fui'uiture for 
the cabin, and some warm bed-clothing. It took a four-horse 



96 LINCOLN. 

wagon to bring her furniture and goods from Kentucky. 
She caused her husband also to put down a floor, and to make 
windows and a door. She came in winter time, and treated 
the poor children so well and made the house so warm and 
comfortable that they were much happier. A son and two 
daughters came with her, who now became little Abraham's 
brother and sisters. She treated him so kindly, and he 
learned to love her so much, that long afterwards she said, 
"He never gave me a cross word, and never refused to do 
anything I requested of him." 

He had gone to school a few weeks in Kentucky, and now 
he was sent again in Indiana. One of his teachers was An- 
drew Crawford, who not only taught him reading, writing and 
arithmetic, but manners too, how to bow and how to intro- 
duce a person. He was a good speller and took delight in 
writing compositions. His first essays were against cruelty 
to animals. He was angry at seeing the other boys torment- 
ing turtles, putting live coals on their backs to make them 
crawl. The last school he attended was four and one-half 
miles from home, and this distance he walked twice a day. 

He was now seventeen, and very tall and strong. With 
low shoes, a linsey-woolsey shirt, buckskin breeches and a 
coon-skin cap, he was a rough-looking backwoods boy, and 
so tall that his trousers had grown several inches too short. 
His father set him to work upon the farm grubbing up roots 
and stumps, plowing, mowing and cradling, chopping wood, 
splitting rails, and oftea working birefooted. When not 
needed on his father's farm, he often worked as a hired hand 
for the neighbors. When sixteen years old he worked for a 
while on a ferry-boat that crossed the Ohio river. In the 
fall, when the hogs were to be killed, he was in demand be- 
cause of his great strength, getting thirty-one cents a day for 
his work. He could carry six hundred pounds and lift a 
barrel of whiskey, but people complained that he was too 
tempeiate. He was so good natured, full of stories, and so 
kind in helping the women about the house, that he was 



LINCOLN. 97 

much liked as a farm hand. He was ready to chop wood, 
bring in water, make a fire or take care of the baby. Once 
he saved the life of a town drunkard, whom he found freez- 
ing by the roadside, and carried him in his arms to the tavern. 

At his home there was but one room in the cabin, and a 
large family of seven children, including brothers, sisters 
and cousins. Abraham was the big brother to whom they all 
looked up for help. He took no great delight in farm work, 
but did his tasks in a satisfactory manner. When the day's 
work was done, he turned with pleasure to his books and 
ciphering. So great was his strength that he was not wear- 
ied with the farm work, and could spend the evenings in 
study. When no paper was to be had, he ciphered on a 
board or wooden shovel and then shaved off the figures. 
Few books were to be had, but such as could be found, he 
read again and again, such as iEsop's Fables, Bobinson Cru- 
soe, Buuyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a history of the United 
States, and the life of Washington. From borrowed books 
he would fill his copy book with choice extracts, and then 
often commit them to memory. Sometimes he wrote essays, 
poems and speeches, and after attending a meeting he would 
sometimes mount a stump and repeat what he had heard for 
the entertainment of the other boys. 

Mr. Jones, the store-keeper at Gentryville, took a liking 
to Lincoln, talked with him about politics, and sometimes 
employed him in his store. Lincoln now began to wish to 
see something of the world beyond his backwoods home, 
and turned his attention to the boats on the river. But he 
was not yet of age and his father needed him on the farm. 
When he was nineteen years old, Mr. Gentry, of Gentryville, 
employed him to work the front oars of a flat boat which 
was loaded with bacon, to be sold at New Orleans and other 
cities on the Mississippi. Lincoln and a son of Mr. Gentry 
made this trip of eighteen hundred miles together success- 
fully. Passing down the Ohio and the Mississippi they had 
stopped at some of the large cities on the river. One 

7 



98 LINCOLN. 

night they had anchored at a sugar plantation a few miles 
below Baton Ronge, the young men had gone to sleep in the 
cabin, when they were awakened by the noise of footsteps 
and saw a gang of negroes boarding the boat, for the purpose 
of robbing it. Abraham seized a club, knocked some of them 
overboard and chased the others away. Pleased with their 
victory, the two young men jumped ashore, pursued the ne- 
groes a short distance in the dark, and returned, bleeding 
with a few wounds, to the boat. Loosening it they then float- 
ed down the river during the night. Having sold the cargo 
they returned on a steamboat, up the river, to Indiana. 

When Lincoln was twenty years old his father decided to 
move to Illinois. The farm and house were sold and the fam- 
ily, with goods and furniture packed in a wagon, drawn by four 
oxen. They set out in February, when the roads were thaw- 
ing and the streams flooded. After tramping fifteen days 
through the muddy forest roads, a distance of two hundred 
miles, they settled on a farm by the Sangamon river, ten miles 
west of Decatur. Here the men put up a log cabin, also a 
smoke house for drying and smoking meat, and a stable. 
Abraham was now about twenty-one years old, but he, with 
the help of John Hanks, plowed fifteen acres of land and 
split enough rails from the tall walnut trees to fence it, Vje- 
fore leaving home. After getting the family well settled he 
started out to work for his own living. He was at this time 
a very rough looking person, tall, angular and ungainly, with 
trousers of flax and tow, cut tight at the ankles. He was so 
poor that he bargained to split rails to get enough jeans to 
make him a pair of ti'ousers. The next year Lincoln and his 
cousin, John Hanks, agreed to take a cargo of goods down 
the Mississippi again. They were to receive each fifty cents 
a day and twenty dollars each, besides, on their return. They 
met their employer at Springfield, but he had no boat ready. 
Then the young men cut down trees on the bank of the San- 
gamon and built a flat boat. When completed, they loaded it 
with corn and pork and started down the Sangamon. Just 



LINCOLN. 99 

below New Salem the boat stuck fast on a dam. Lincoln 
waded about the boat till lie made a contrivance for unload- 
ing and lifting it over the dam, and afterwards patented a 
machine for lifting boats over shallow places. They then 
passed down the Sangamon, the Illinois and the Mississippi 
to New Orleans. It was on one of these trips to New Orleans 
that he was asked by two gentlemen to ferry them across the 
river and received for it one dollar. It was the first dollar 
in money that he ever received and greatly pleased him. In 
New Orleans he saw negroes chained, whipped, and sold as 
slaves, and was indignant. Lincoln returned to St. Louis and 
then walked home. Soon after this he became clerk in a 
store at New Salem, working as a salesman for a year. 

In 1831, Lincoln went to New Salem, a town on the Sanga- 
mon river, to become the clerk of Mr. Offutt in the village store. 
After waiting a while for the goods to arrive, the store was 
opened and Lincoln began to serve the customers. In figur- 
ing up the account of a woman who had bought something 
at the store, he found that she had paid him six and a quarter 
cents too much. After closing the store that evening he 
walked several miles to the woman's home to pay her back. 
He was good-natured and obliging in his manner and in no 
way inclined to pick a quarrel. But one day while ladies 
were in the store, a country bully came in and began to use 
very loud and profane' language. Lincoln asked him to 
cease and was at once challenged to a fight in the street. 
They went out and Lincoln quickly threw down the ruffian 
and then pulling up some of the smart-weed in the road, rub- 
bed his face and eyes with it till he howled for relief. Lin- 
coln then treated him kindly and brought some water to 
bathe his smarting face. There was a crowd of rough and 
reckless young men who came almost every week to New 
Salem to carouse. They were accustomed also to challenge 
any new comer in the village to a wrestle or fight, and were 
often very brutal to those for whom they wese too strong. 
Mr. Offutt was very talkative and often foolishly boasted 



100 LINCOLN. 

of Lincoln's strength and skill as a wrestler. At first the 
rough "Clary's Grove boys," as they were called, did not dis- 
turb him, but they were annoyed to hear the boasting about 
Lincoln's strength, and after a good deal of bantering, the 
strongest of the bullies challenged him to a wrestling match. 
Lincoln disliked it all, but could not well refuse. Jack Arm- 
strong, his opponent, soon found that he was not a match for 
Lincoln, and was then aided by his friends, who began to 
close in and to kick and annoy Lincoln, so that he came near 
falling. Somewhat provoked at this, he seized Armstrong 
with all his strength and almost choked the breath from 
him. The others then seeing that Lincoln was fully aroused 
and, with his back to the wall, was fearlessly facing the crowd, 
decided to withdraw and avoid a fight. These men now be- 
came his fast friends and greatly admired his strength and 
pluck. His reputation for strength and good humor were now 
established and he was often called in as a peacemaker to 
decide the disputes of others. 

It was also during his year's clerkship in Mr. Offutt's store 
that he decided to study grammar. After some inquiries, he 
heard of a grammar that could be secured if he would walk 
several miles after it. Having obtained this prize he was so 
industrious in his study of it that he soon felt himself master 
of all it contained. 

Mr. OfiPutt's store at New Salem was kept open only about 
a year. At the close of that time the Black Hawk Indian 
war broke out in northern Illinois, when that chief invaded 
the state with his warriors. Governor Eeynolds, of Illinois, 
at once called for volunteers and Lincoln was one of the first 
to answer the call. When the company met for the first time 
they had no captain and at once proceeded to make a choice. 
About three-fourths of the m.n walked to where Lincoln 
stood and thus selected him as ciptain. His company then 
joined other companies to form a regiment, and marched 
northwest to the Mississippi river and up the Rock river to 
Dixon. Lincoln remained with the army till the war closed, 



LINCOLN. 101 

although many of his companions returned home as soon 
as their term of enlistment was up. Lincoln was considered 
the strongest man in the army, and only one man was equal 
to him in wrestling. Black Hawk's band was finally scat- 
tered and he taken prisoner. When released from service 
Lincoln was in southern Wisconsin. He and a friend at once 
set out on foot to return home as their horses had been 
stolen a short time before. Other soldiers, who were travel- 
ing the same way, lent them their horses at times. Having 
reached Peoria they bought a skiff and began the rest of the 
journey down the river. The second day they overtook a 
lumber raft guided down the stream by two men. They 
were invited to join them and feasted on "fish, corn bread, 
eggs, butter and coffee." They ate heartily, not having had 
such a warm meal for several days. Having reached Havana 
they crossed the country on foot to their homes.] 




102 ROBERTSON. 



ROBERTSON. 



[authority: koosevelt, "winning of the west." J 



Robertson was a pioneer in the early settlement of Ten- 
nessee. Like Boone, he lived in North Carolina, and decided 
in 1770, to cross the mountains, in search of a choice place 
for settlement. "He started off alone on his exploring expe- 
dition, rifle in hand, and a good horse under him. He crossed 
the ranges that continue northward, the Great Smokies, and 
spent the summer in the beautiful hill country where the 
springs of the western waters flowed from the ground. He 
had never seen so lovely a land. The high valleys, through 
which the currents ran, Avere hemmed in by towering moun- 
tain walls, with cloud-capped peaks. The fertile loam form- 
ing the bottoms, was densely covered with the growth of 
the old forest. Robertson was well treated by the few settlers 
already there, and stayed long enough to raise a crop of corn, 
the stand-by of the backwoods pioneer. Like every other 
hunter, explorer and Indian fighter, he lived on the game he 
shot, and the small quantity of maize he could carry with 
him. In the late fall, however, when re-crossing the moun- 
tains on his way home through the trackless forest, both game 
and corn failed him. He lost his way, was forced to abandon 
his horse among impassable precipices, and finally found his 
rifle useless, owing to the powder having been soaked. For 
fourteen days he lived almost entirely on nuts and wild- 



ROBERTSON. 103 

berries, and was on the point of death from starvation, when 
he met two hunters on horseback, who fed him and let him 
ride their horses by turns, and brought him safely to his 
home." 

"He at once prepared to set out with his family for the 
new land. His accounts greatly excited his neighbors, and 
sixteen families made ready to accompany him. The little 
caravan started under Robertson's guidance, as soon as the 
ground had dried after the winter rains, in the spring of 1771. 
They traveled, the men on foot, rifle on shoulder, the elder 
children driving the lean cows, while the women, the young 
children and the few household goods and the tools were 
carried on the backs of pack-horses. On reaching the 
Watauga, in what is now the north-east of Tennessee, they 
found a few Yirginia settlers who had come down the great 
valley. On an island in the river, Robertson built a house 
of logs, with the bark still on them, on the outside, though 
hewed smooth within. It had several rooms and a loft, a 
roof of split saplings, held down by weighty poles, a log 
veranda in front and a huge fire-place of sticks and stones 
laid in clay, wherein the pile of blazing logs roared loudly 
in cool weather." 

"He had been married three years and had been 'learning 
his letters and to spell' from his well-educated wife, for he 
could not read when married." But he soon became a leading 
man in the little settlement. In order to prevent trouble 
with the Indians, Robertson, and one other man, were sent 
toward the south to make a treaty with tlie Cherokees. They 
succeeded, and the Indians agreed, for six thousand dollars 
worth of blankets, paints and muskets, to grant the settlers 
the use of all the lands along the Watauga for eight years. 
"After the lease was signed, a day was appointed on which 
to hold a great race, as well as wrestling matches and other 
sports at Watauga. Besides tlie whites, many Indians were 
present. All went well till evening, when some lawless 
whites, from a neighboring settlement, who were keeping in 



104 KOBERTSON. 

the woods, killed an Indian, whereat his fellows left the spot 
in great anger." But Robertson, leaving the others to build a 
strong palisaded fort, set off alone through the woods and 
followed the great war-trace to the Cherokee towns. His 
mission was one of great peril, for there was danger that the 
justly angered savages wouhl take his life. But he was a 
bold man, quiet and resolute. Besides, the Cherokees knew 
him, and trusted his word. He also knew well how to deal 
with the Indians. He persuaded the chiefs and warriors to 
meet him in council, told them of the sorrow and anger with 
which the Watauga people looked upon the murder, and 
ended by saying that he would try to have the wrong-doer 
arrested and punished. The Indians were pleased with Rob- 
ertson's words, and agreed to pass the matter by. Then he 
returned to the settlement with the good news. 

For several years the Watauga settlers were not disturbed. 
They lived in peace, hunting and farming, making clearings, 
and raising cattle, horses, hogs and sheep. For ten years 
Robertson lived among the Watauga settlers, and bad been 
prosperous. But in 1779, he decided to push westward 
several hundred miles and found a new settlement. Many 
other adventurous settlers wished to go with him and take 
their families. In the spring of 1779, Robertson left the 
Watauga settlement with eight companions. He followed 
Boone's wilderness road through Cumberland Gap and across 
the Cumberland river. "Then he struck southwest through 
the wilderness, following in many places the well-beaten 
buffalo trails which were very distinct near the pools and 
springs. The travelers were going toward the great bend of 
the Cumberland and fixed upon a place called 'The Bluffs' or 
the 'French Lick,' afterwards known as Nashville." Having 
reached the place, they planted a corn field on the site of the 
future town, put up some cabins and then returned to their 
families on the Watauga, leaving three or four of their num- 
ber to keep the buffaloes out of the corn. When the first 
hunters went to the bluffs in 1769, "the buffaloes were more 



ROBERTSON. 105 

numerous tliau they had ever seen them before. The ground 
shook under the gallop of the mighty herds, they crowded 
in dense throngs about the salt licks, and the forest resound- 
ed with their grunting bellows." "In the fall many men 
came out to the new settlement, guided by Kobertson and 
other pioneer leaders. Robertson's special partner was a 
man named Donelson. The latter went by water and took a 
large party of emigrants, including all the women and chil- 
dren. Among them was also Robertson's entire family and 
Rachel, a daughter of Donelson, afterwards the wife of 
Andrew Jackson. Robertson, meanwhile, was to lead the 
men by laud so that they might get there first and make 
ready for the coming of their families. The men and some 
families who had gone by land reached the Bluffs about 
Christmas. One man had taken with him twenty-one horned 
cattle and seventeen horses, the only ones which any man had 
succeeded in bringing to the Cumberland." The settlers and 
families who went by water had a more difficult and danger- 
ous journey. From Watauga they passed in boats down the 
Tennessee, then up the Ohio and Cumberland to Nashville. 

"Donelson's fleet, after being joined by a number of other 
boats at the mouth of the Clinch, consisted of some thirty 
craft, all told, flat boats, dug-outs, and canoes." The chief 
boat was the Adventure, a great scow, in which there were 
over thirty men, besides the families of some of them. 
There were between two and three hundred people. " They 
started December 22, but falling water and heavy frosts de- 
tained them two months, and the voyage did not really begin 
till February 27. The first ten days were uneventful. The 
Adveidiwe spent an afternoon and a night on a shoal, until 
the water fortunately rose, and all the men getting out, the 
clumsy scow was floated off. Another boat was driven on 
the point of an island and sunk, her crew being nearly 
drowned, whereupon the rest of the boats put to shore, the 
sunken boat was raised and bailed out, and most of her cargo 
recovered. At one landing place a man went out to hunt, 



106 ROBERTSON. 

and got lost, not being taken np again for three days, though 
many guns were fired to fetch him in and the four-pounder 
on the Adventure was discharged for the same purpose. A 
negro became "much frosted in his feet and legs of which 
he died." Wherever the river widened, a strong wind and 
waves forced the boats to lay to, especially the small canoes. 

They soon reached the first Chicamauga town on the south 
shore. The Indians pretended to be friendly, at the same 
time sending out canoes full of armed men to threaten them; 
but the whites kept away from the shore and left the Indians 
behind. As the boats kept close to the opposite shore they 
were suddenly fired upon by Indians in ambush and one man 
was killed. "There was one boat load of twenty-eight men, 
women and children among whom small-pox had broken out. 
To guard against infection, it was agreed that it should keep 
well to the rear, being warned each night by the sound of a 
horn when it was time to go to camp. As this forlorn boat- 
load of unfortunates came along far behind the others, the 
Indians, seeing its defenseless position, sallied out in their 
canoes and butchered or captured all who were aboard. Their 
cries were distinctly heard by the people in the hindmost 
boats, who could not stem the current and return to their 
rescue. But a dreadful punishment fell upon the Indians, 
for they were infected with the disease and it raged for sev- 
eral months among many of the bands of Creeks and Chero- 
kees, so that multitudes perished. 

"When the boats entered the narrows, they had lost sight 
of the Indians on shore, and thought they had left them be- 
hind. A man, who was in a canoe, had gone aboard one of 
the larger boats with his family, for the sake of safety while 
passing through the rough water. His canoe was towed 
along side, and in the rapids was overturned and the cargo 
lost. The rest of the company, pitying his distress over the 
loss of all his worldly goods, landed, to see if they could not 
help him to recover some of his property. Just as they got 
out on the shore to walk back, the Indians suddenly appeared 



ROBEETSON. 107 

almost over them on the high cliffs opposite, and began to 
fire, causing a hurried retreat to the boats. For some dis- 
tance the Indians lined the bluffs, firing from the heights 
into the boats below. Yet only four people were wounded, 
and they, not dangerously. One of them was a girl named 
Nancy Gower. When, by the sudden onslaught of the In- 
dians, the crew, in which she was, were thrown into dismay, 
she took the helm and steered, exposed to the fire of the 
savages. A ball went through the upper part of one of her 
thighs, but she neither flinched nor uttered any cry. It was 
not known that she was hurt until after the danger was past, 
and her mother saw the blood soaking through her clothes. 
She recovered, married one of the frontiersmen and lived for 
fifty years afterwards, long enough to see all the wilderness 
filled with flourishing and populous states, Jonathan Jen- 
ning's clumsy boat stuck on a rock at the uj)per end of the 
whirl, as the rapids w0re called. The swift current made it 
impossible for other boats to come to the relief of this one, 
and they were obliged to drift by and leave Jennings to his 
fate. The Indians soon turned their whole attention to the 
disabled boat, and opened a galling fire upon it from the 
bluffs. He returned it as well as he could, keeping them some- 
what in ckeck, for he was an excellent marksman. At the same 
time he directed his two negroes, a man and woman, a nearly 
grown son, and a young man Avho was with them, to lighten 
the boat by throwing his goods into the river. Before this 
was done, the negro man, the son and the other young man, 
most basely jumped into the river and swam ashore. But 
the negro was killed in the water and the other two were 
captured, one of them being afterwards burned at the stake. 
Meanwhile Mrs. Jennings, assisted by Mrs. Payton and the 
negro woman, actually succeeded in shoving the lightened 
boat off the rock, tliough their clothes were cut in many 
places by the bullets, and they rapidly drifted out of danger. 
Sailing by night as well as by day, they caught up with the 
rest of the boats before the dawn of the second morning 



108 KOBERTSON. 

afterwards. Having successfully run the gauntlet of Cliica- 
niauga, they were only once more molested by the Indians. 
The boats drifted near the shore at one place, and they were 
fired upon by a roving band of Indians and five men were 
wounded. They ran over the great Muscle Shoals in about 
three hours, without accident, though the boats scraped on 
the bottom here and there. The swift, broken water surged 
into high waves and roared through the drift-wood that cov- 
ered the points of small islands, round which the current ran 
in every direction." 

" On the twentieth of the month they reached the Ohio. 
Some of the boats then left for Natches, and others for the 
Illinois country, while the remainder turned their prows up 
stream, to stem the rapid current which was very difficult. 
The work was very hard, the provisions nearly gone, and the 
crews were almost worn out with hunger and fatigue. The 
Adventure, the heaviest of all the craft, got much help from 
a small square sail that was set up at the bow. Two days 
after entering the Cumberland, the hungry party killed some 
buffalo, and feasted on the lean meat, and the next day they 
shot a swan, which was very delicious. They had no more 
meal to make bread with, but buffaloes were plenty and they 
hunted them steadily for meat. They also made what was 
called Shawnee salad, from a kind of green herb that grew 
in the bottoms." 

It was not till April 24th that they reached the Big Salt 
Lick (Nashville) and found Robertson awaiting them. The 
long, toilsome and perilous voyage was at an end. There 
were then about five hundred settlers at the Bluff and scat- 
tered in stations along the river. The whites did not expect 
to be disturbed by the Indians. As there were fine farm 
lands in the neighborhood, the settlers began to scatter out 
and make claims, although Robertson warned them against 
the Indians. 

The great valley of middle Tennessee belonged to no 
single tribe but manv tribes claimed it as hunting ground. 



ROBERTSON. 109 

In April roving bands of Delawares, Chickasaws and Choc- 
taws began to worry the settlements. Soon the outlying cab- 
ins were deserted and all gathered into the stockades. The 
central station, the capital of the little community, was that 
at the Bluff, (Big Lick or Nashville) wliere Robertson built 
a little stockaded village. Other stations were scattered 
along both sides of the river. Not only was there distress 
because of the Indians, but lawless whites were causing trouble 
by wronging the Indians or killing the stock of the whites , 
There were also disputes among the settlers about land claims. 
Robertson therefore called a meeting of delegates from the 
different stations, at Nashborough, to form a government. 
It was agreed that twelve judges should be elected at the 
different stations to form a court to settle land disputes and 
other troubles. Officers were also appointed to lead the set- 
tlers against the Indians. Robertson was one of the judges 
and also first colonel of the militia. 

The chief danger was from the Indians. In April, as be- 
fore stated, they began to commit murders, kill the stock and 
drive off the horses. Among the slain was a son of Robert- 
son. The savages felt jealous of the white hunters who were 
killing and driving off the game, and gathered from different 
quarters to assail the colonists. The settlers were shot as 
they worked on their clearings, gathered the corn crops or 
ventured outside the walls of the stockades. Hunters were 
killed as they stooped to drink at the springs, or lay in wait 
at the licks. The Indians often imitated the gobblings of the 
wild turkey or the cries of wild beasts to lure the hunters to 
death. Robertson led several bands against the Indians, but 
it was difficult to overtake or chastise them. Horses and 
cattle had been brought into the new settlements in some 
number dui'ing the year, but the savages killed or drove off 
most of them, shooting the hogs and horned stock aud steal- 
ing the riding animals. The loss of the milk cows was 
severely felt by the women. Besides these troubles there 
were heavy floods in the bottom lands which destroyed most 
of the corn crop. 



110 ROBERTSON. 

The settlers were greatly discouraged, and many left the 
country. All but two of the stockades were deserted, and 
the settlers were anxious to return through the forests 
to East Tennessee. But Robertson, though he had suffered 
as much as anybody, remained steadfast. He strongly urged 
upon the settlers the danger of flight through the wilderness. 
The land about them was so beautiful and fertile that it was 
well worth the .risk of holding it. The settlers were en- 
couraged by Robertson's confidence and courage, and they 
decided to remain." As their corn had failed them they got 
their food from the woods, some gathered quantities of wal- 
nuts, hickory nuts and shell barks, and the hunters wrought 
havoc among tlie vast herds of game. During the early 
winter, one party of twenty men, that went up Caney Fork 
on a short trip, killed one hundred five bears, seventy-five 
bufi'aloes and eighty-seven deer and brought the flesh and 
hides back to the stockades in canoes, so that through, the 
winter there was no lack of jerked and smoke-dried meat." 

The hunters were good marksmen and used the small 
bore rifle that required but little powder, of which they were 
very saving. Nevertheless, by the beginning of winter, both 
powder and bullets began to fail. Robertson at once ofl'ered 
to travel alone through the woods and barrens to Kentucky 
to secure ammunition. It was a dreary journey, through 
a snow-covered region infested with Indians. Robertson set 
out at once, alone, and reached Kentucky, where he secured 
plenty of powder, and without delay, began his return jour- 
ney to the Cumberland. "He traveled through the frozen 
woods, trusting solely to his own sharp senses for safety. 
On the evening of January 15, 1781, he reached Friedland 
station near Nashville, and was joyfully received by the in- 
mates. They supped late and then sat up still later talking 
matters over. When they went to bed, all were tired and neg- 
lected to take the usual precautions against surprise. But at 
that time they did not fear any attack. They slept heavily, 
none keeping watch. Robertson alone was wakeful and sus- 



ROBEllTSON. Ill 

picions; and even during his light slumbers, liis keen and 
long-trained senses were on the alert. At midnight all was 
still. The moon shone brightly down on the square block- 
houses and stockaded yard of the lonely little frontier fort. 
Its I'ays lit up the clearing, and by contrast, darkened the- 
black shadow of the surrounding forest. None of tiie sleep- 
ers within the log walls dreamed of danger, but an Indian 
war-band was lurking near by, and was about to attack the 
fort in the darkness. In the dead of night the attempt was 
made. One by one the warriors left the protection of the 
tangled wood-growth, slipped silently across the open space, 
and crouched under the heavy timber pickets of the pali- 
sades, until all had gathered together. Though the gate was 
fastened with a strong bar and chain, the dexterous savages 
contrived to open it. In so doing they made a slight noise 
which caught Robertson's quick ear as he lay on his buffalo 
hide palet. Jumping up he saw the gate open and dusky 
figures gliding into the yard with stealthy swiftness. At his 
cry of Indians and the rei^ort of his piece, the settlers sprang 
up, every man grasping the loaded gun by which he slept. 
From each log cabin tlie rifles cracked and flashed, and 
though -the Indians were actually within the yard, they had 
no cover, and the sudden and unexpected resistance caused 
them to hurry out much faster tlian tliey had come in. Rob- 
ertson shot one of their number and they in turn killed a 
white man who sprang out of doors at the first alarm. When 
they were driven out the gate was closed after them. Rob- 
ertson's return was at a most favorable moment. As often 
before and afterwards he had saved the settlement from 
destruction." 

"On April 2(1 a large war party of Cherokees made an at- 
tempt upon Nashborough. They approached the fort at night, 
lying hid in the bushes, divided into two parties, a larger and 
a smaller. In the morning three of them came near, fired at 
the fort, and ran off toward where the smaller party lay am- 
bushed, in a thicket in a ravine. Instantly twenty men 



112 ROBERTSON. 

moiiuted their horses and galloped after the decoys. As they 
overtook the fugitives, they saw the Indians hid in the creek 
bottom and dismounted to fight, turning their horses loose. 
A smart interchange of shots followed and the whites were 
getting rather the best of it, when the other and larger body 
of Indians rose from their hiding place, in a clump of cedars, 
and running down, formed a line between the white men and 
the fort, intending to run into the fort with the fleeing rifle- 
men. The only chance for the whites, hemmed in, was to 
turn and force their way back through their more numerous 
foes. But their pieces were all discharged and there was no 
time to reload them. They were helped, however, by two un- 
expected circumstances. Their horses had taken flight at the 
firing and ran off toward the fort, passing to one side of the 
intervening Indians. Many of the latter, eager for such 
booty, ran off to catch them. Meanwhile the remaining men 
in the fort saw what had happened and made ready for de- 
fense, while all the women likewise snatched guns or axes and 
stood by loop holes and gates. The dogs at the fort were also 
taking a keen interest in what was going on. They were 
stout, powerful animals, some being hounds and others watch 
dogs, but all accustomed to contests with wild beasts; and by 
the instinct and training they mortally hated Indians. Seeing 
a line of savages drawn up between the fort and their masters, 
they promptly sallied out and made a most furious onset up- 
on their astonished foes. Taking advantage of this, the 
whites ran through the lines and got into the fort, the Indians 
being completely occupied in defending themselves from the 
dogs. Five of the whites were killed and two wounded, 
while the Indians lost about as many. The gates were now 
closed and the whites ready, and this was the last attempt of 
the Indians to capture a palisaded fort in Tennessee. But 
in the two following years the settlers were so much troubled 
by the Indians that they again proposed to return to eastern 
Tennessee. It was only Robertson's great influence which 
prevented this. 



ROBERTSON. 113 

At the end of two years, in 1783, the Revolution closed 
and settlers began to flock to Tennessee, and the Indian 
troubles became less. The (jovcrnment was also again organ- 
ized. Robertson became chairman of the Court of Judges, 
and a clerk and sheriff were appointed to carry out their 
decisions. Arrangements were made for a proper survey 
of the lands of the settlers and for a settlement of disputes 
between land owners. The judges had also the duty of i3un- 
ishiug thefts and crimes on the part of lawless men, of whom 
many had come to Tennessee. "Besides the militia, a small 
force of regulars was organized, that is, six spies were kept 
out to Avatch the motions of the Indians, each spy to receive 
seventy-five bushels of Indian corn per mouth. They were 
under the direction of Colonel Robertson, who was the lead- 
ing man in all parts of the government." 

It has been seen that the lawless whites were often a 
source of as much trouble to the better class of settlers as 
the Indians. They would shoot cattle and inflict injuries up- 
on the Indians which brought danger to all the s-ettlements. 
In 1781 fifteen men, under the leadership of one Colbert, 
passed down the river to the Mi&sissippi in boats and then 
descended that stream to plunder the Spanish settlements 
along its banks. They were joined by some Chickasaw In- 
dians and captured several Spanish boats. But at last they 
were defeated and scattered by the Spaniards themselves. 
The Spaniards, of course, would blame the Cumberland set- 
tlers for sending out such lawless men. Robertson and other 
leading men of the settlement, in order to avoid difliculty, 
at once wrote to the Spaniards, at New Orleans, and sent a 
messenger saying that Colbert and his men were outlaws and 
the settlers on the Cumberland were not responsible foi- their 
deeds. An order was also issued by the leading men that no 
one should trade with the Indians until a license was granted 
and a guaranty of good behavior was secured from the trad- 
ers. Many desired to obtain a treaty of peace with the In- 
dians to the south, but they were afraid to bring so many 



114 ROBERTSON. 

Indians and whites together, for tear of some outrage. 
At last it was decided to hold a great peace council with them. 
It took place near Nashborough. " The selling of liquors to 
the Indians was strictly prohibited. At the appointed time 
many chiefs and warriors of the Chickasaws, Cherokees and 
even Creeks appeared. There were various sports, such as 
ball games and foot-races, and the treaty was brought to a 
satisfactory conclusion. It did not completely stop the In- 
dian outrages, but it greatly diminished them." 

Robertson kept uj) a correspondence with the Spanish 
Governor of New Orleans, and some trade was established 
by means of the river, between the Cumberland settlements 
and the Spaniards on the lower Mississippi. At times, also, 
the Spanish agents attempted to stir up the savages against 
the people of Tennessee, so as to hinder them from further 
settlements to the south and west. These troubles, however, 
were settled, and the people along the Cumberland lived, for 
the most part, on friendly terms with the Spaniards. 

JOHN SEVIER. 

John Sevier vv-as a friend of Robertson, and even more 
famous than he in the early history of East Tennessee. 
For several years they had lived as neighbors in the Watauga 
settlement, and they fought and served together in many In- 
dian campaigns. Sevier was born in Virginia, the son of a 
French Huguenot, and came to Watauga in 1772. " He was 
a very handsome man, tall, fair-skinned, blue-eyed, brown- 
haired, of slender build, with erect, military carriage and 
bearing, his lithe, finely-proportioned figure being well set 
off by the hunting shirt which he almost invariably wore." 
He was well educated, also had great influence over the back- 
woodsmen, because of his daring courage, kindness and gen- 
erosity. He was for many years the most renowned Indian 
fighter in the southwest, and was the type of a hospitable 
southern gentleman. In 1776, Sevier was living in the valley 
of East Tennessee, when the Cherokee Indians from the 
south crossed through the mountain valleys and marched up 



SEVIER. 115 

the valley of the Tennessee, laying- waste the fields, burning 
houses, and killing men, women, and children. The settlers 
fled with such few articles as they could carry to the stock- 
aded forts. This happened at the breaking out of the devo- 
lution, and the Indians had been prompted to take up the 
tomahawk and scalping knife by British agents among the 
Indians who furnished the savages with guns and ammuni- 
tion. The villages of the Cherokees, many in number, were 
among the mountain ranges of Northern Georgia and West- 
ern North Carolina. They attempted to fall upon the Wat- 
auga settlements unexpectedly, but an Indian squaw brought 
word to the settlers of the uprising. Men with their families 
fled to the forts and the well-trained backwoods scouts 
watched the movements of the Indians, so as to carry word 
to any fort that was about to be attacked, and to summon the 
riflemen of the neighborhood to its defence. 

There were many bands of the Cherokees, one of the 
largest of which was led by the great chief, Dragging Canoe. 
As the bands pushed northward through the valley, many 
backwoodsmen gathered at Eaton's Station, at the forks of 
the Holston. They were good marksmen, hardy and full 
of fight, and, after a council was held, "they decided not to 
stay cooped wp in the fort, like turkeys in a pen, while the 
Indians ravaged the fields and burnt the homesteads, but to 
march out against them." One hundred and seventy strong, 
they sallied forth, and, marching in two parallel lines in Indian 
file, M-ith scouts thrown out on either side, to prevent sur- 
prise, they bent their steps in silence toward "Island Flats," 
a level tract of woodland on the Holston. As they came 
near the Flats, they surprised a body of twenty Indians, 
who fled, leaving their baggage. It being late in the day, 
the captains decided to return to the fort, though many of 
the men wished to advance against the Indians. They had 
started back, when scouts brought word that the Indians, be- 
lieving the backwoodsmen to be retreating, were rushing 
forward to attack them in the rear. The men at once 



116 SEVIER. 

wheeled round and formed a line of battle, and spreading 
out, concealed themselves behind trees and bushes. The 
warriors rushed forward, led by Diagging Canoe himself. 
Calling upon his men to come and scalp the whites, he raised 
the warwhoop and made a furious onset, but the backwoods- 
men, with their long rifles, waited till the Indians were near 
at hand and then j)Oured in a volley that checked the ad- 
vance. A short fight followed at close quarters, Dragging 
Canoe was badly wounded and the Indians fled in disorder, 
carrying off their Avounded. The Indians lost thirteen killed, 
while the whites had four wounded and took much plunder. 
On the same day another band of Indians made an attack 
upon the Watauga fort, where Robertson and Sevier were in 
command. There were many Avomen and children in the 
fort and but forty or flfty riflemen. As the Indians came up 
the valley, Sevier had sent word northward into Virginia, that 
the savages were advancing with the intention of driving 
all the whites out of East Tennessee, but he made no request 
for help. He was so fearless as to believe that they would 
be able, unaided, to drive back the Indians. No help could 
"come from the east on account of the mountains. One 
morning, as the Indians advanced in the early twilight, they 
were detected and forced back by the well-directed shots 
from the port-holes. The Indians kept up thj sie;:,e about 
three weeks. Some of the men, weary of being cooped up 
in the fort, ventured out and four were killed. "Tradition 
relates that Sevier, now a young widower, fell in love with 
the woman he soon afterwards married, during the siege. 
Her name was Kate Sherrill, tall, brown-haired and comely. 
One day while without the fort, she was almost surprised by 
the Indians. Running like a deer, she reached the stockade, 
sprang up so as to catch the top with her hands, and draw- 
ing herself over, was caught by Sevier on the other side. 
Through a loop-hole he had already shot the foremost of her 
pursuers. AVhile the foe was still lurking about the fort, 
the people within were forced to subsist solely on parched 



SEYIER. 117 

coru." About the time the Indians were departing, back- 
woodsmen came from the other forts to assist the besieged. 
All through the valley the Indians had been forced to with- 
draw, having suifered greater loss than they had inflicted. In 
the fall of this year, an army of two thousand men, mostly 
from Virginia, but joined also by the Watauga men, marched 
southward against the Northern Cherokees. The Indians 
retreated before this force, and their villages were laid waste 
until they begged for peace. 

The Watauga settlements were now secure for a time from 
the Indians. From 1779 on, Sevier was treated as commander 
of the militia. " He lived in a great, rambling, one-story 
house, on the Nolichucky, (a branch of the Tennessee,) a 
rude, irregular building with broad verandas and great stone 
fire-places. The rooms were in two groups, which were con- 
nected by a covered porch — a 'dog alley,' as the old settlers 
still call it, because the dogs are apt to sleep there at night. 
He kept open house to all comers, for he was lavishly hospit- 
able, and every one was welcome to bed and board, to apple- 
jack and cider, hominy and corn-bread, beef, venison, bear 
meat and wild fowl. When there was a wedding or merry- 
making of any kind, he feasted the neighborhood, barbecu- 
ing oxen, that is, roasting them whole on great spits, — and 
spreading broad tables out under the trees. He was ever on 
the alert to lead his mounted riflemen against the small 
parties of wandering Indians that came into the country. 
He soon became the best commander against the Indians that 
there was in that part of the border, moving with a rapidity 
that enabled him again and again to overcome and scatter 
their roving parties, recovering the plunder and captives, and 
now and then taking a scalp or two himself. His skill and 
daring, together with his unfailing courtesy, ready tact and 
hospitality, gained him unbounded influence with the fron- 
tiersmen, among whom he was universally known as 'Noli- 
chucky Jack.'" — [Roosevelt.] 



118 LEWIS AND CLARKE. 



LEWIS AND CLARKE. 



AUTHORITIES : JOURNAL OF THE TRIP. S. A. DRAKE "THE MAKING OF THE 
GREAT WEST," AND H.. C. WRIGHT, "CHILDREN'S STORIES OF AMERI- 
CAN HISTORY." 



Lewis and Clarke were two young men from Virginia, who 
had been appointed by Jefferson, the president of the United 
States, to make the first journey up the Missouri river to its 
sources in the Rocky mountains, and then find a way across 
these mountains to the rivers flowing into the Pacific ocean. 
Lewis was the private secretary of President Jefferson, and 
Clarke was a brother of George Rodgers Clarke, who cap- 
tured Vincennes. 

Until 1804 the United States had possessed no land west 
of the Mississippi, and even the American traders were not 
allowed to enter this great region. The French owned it and 
had called it Louisiana, wliile their fur traders were accus- 
tomed to pass up the river in boats, trade with the Indians, 
and return laden with peltries, to St. Louis or other French 
villages on the Mississippi. But in 1804 Louisiana was sold 
to the United States, and Lewis and Clarke were sent by 
Jefferson to explore it and to make a full report to the gov- 
ernment. Perhaps they would find a good route of travel 
from St. Louis to the Columbia and the Pacific ocean. They 
were to visit the Indian tribes along the river and inform 
them of the change ofc" ownership. Their boats were also laden 



LEWIS AND CLAKKE. 119 

with presents for them. But it was not known whether the 
Indians would be friendly or hostile, nor what other difficul- 
ties would meet them in the voyage up the swift current of 
the Missouri. They were also to observe the animals, trees 
and plants, the soil and climate, with a view to future settle- 
ment. The government was ready to provide them well with 
boats, provisions and arms, besides presents for the Indians. 
"A keel-boat fifty-five feet long, and drawing three feet of 
water, carrying one large, square sail and twenty-two oars," 
was built for them at Pittsburg. "A half-deck at the bow 
and stern formed forecastle and cabin, the middle being left 
open for the rowers." The officers occupied one end and the 
men the other, for sleeping purposes. They had also two or 
three smaller boats, propelled by oars. 

Lewis and Clarke selected twenty-six men for the jour- 
ney. There were nine Kentuckians, fourteen United States 
soldiers, two Canadian Frenchmen and one negro, a body-ser- 
vant of one of the leaders. The boats were well loaded with 
provisions such as coffee, sugar, crackers, and dried meat, 
goods and presents for trading with the Indians, and clothiug, 
tools and instruments for the long and difficult journey. 
Even some horses were taken upon the larger boat, and 
proved of much service. In the fall of 1803 the men and 
boats, deeply laden, descended the Ohio and passed up the 
Mississippi, landing opposite the little French village of St. 
Louis. Here they waited for the spring, collected informa- 
tion from the French traders about the river and the Indians 
and made still further preparations for tbe voyage. 

On the fourth of May, 1804, the explorers left Wood 
river, just below the mouth of the Missouri. There were, 
(including men enlisted at St. Louis), forty-two men in 
one large batteau, and in two smaller boats. On the first 
night they encamped on the liank of the Missouri, and felt 
for the first time that they were fully embarked upon their 
long and dangerous voyage. But the men were all volun- 
teers, who had promised to explore and report to the govern- 



120 LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

meut upon this newly-purchased country, and none were 
disposed to draw back. They advanced slowly up the rapid 
stream, often striking the drifting logs which were carried 
down by the muddy current. On the twenty-eighth of May 
all the provisions and goods were put out from the boat 
to air and dry, and some of the men went out to hunt, 
bringing home a deer. Two days before this two of the 
men were sent out with horses by land, to explore the 
country back from the river, and then to meet the boats 
again further up the stream. On June first they returned to 
camp again at the mouth of the Osage river, saying that the 
land they had passed over was the best they had ever seen. 
The timber was good, consisting of oak, ash, hickory and 
black walnut. The Osage Indians lived about two hundred 
miles up this river, and were of large size and very war-like. 
For the sake of security the arms and ammunition of the 
men were inspected and found to be in good condition. The 
hunters were sent out to bring in game for the whole party. 
On June fourth they returned with seven deer. The next 
day, while rowing slowly up the stream, they met two 
Frenchmen in two canoes loaded with peltries, which they 
had traded from the Indians further up the river. Three 
days later they met four French canoes full of furs and skins 
which the traders were accustomed to bring to St. Louis to 
sell. 

On the ninth of June the boats passed through a narrow 
part of the river where its current was only three hundred 
yards wide, very swift, and difficult to stem. On one 
side was a level country called by the Indians the Prairie of 
Arrows. In attempting to pass round a raft of drift wood, 
in this part of the river, the stern of the large boat got fast 
and the prow was immediately swung round by the cur- 
rent till it was in great danger of capsizing. On the follow- 
ing day the wind blew so hard from the north that they 
could not propel the boat against it and were compelled to 
encamp upon the prairie. Setting out early the next morn- 



LEWIS AND CLAEKE. 121 

ing they proceeded without halt till five o'clock, when they 
were met by five canoes of Frenchmen, loaded with furs and 
peltries which had been purchased from the Sious nation of 
Indians. Stopping to consult with these traders, they re- 
mained with them the whole night, and learned much about 
the river and the tribes above. They persuaded one of the 
Frenchmen, an old man who could speak the language of the 
dift'erent Indian nations, to join them as their interpreter. 

Not only was the constant labor of rowing against the 
swift current of the river a great hardship, but the oars be- 
came worn out and broken. For some days they had been 
on the look out for trees suitable for making oars. Having 
found such a grove, they landed, and the carpenters set to 
work to refit all the boats with oars. While they were at this 
work the hunters were scouring the country for game. The 
largest thing they brought in was a bear, and from this time 
on the hunters frequently returned with bear's meat for the 
camp. A few days later, the hunters having returned with 
two deer and a bear, the men halted, pitched camp upon the 
bank, on a jjleasant sunny day, and jerked the meat, that is, 
cut it into small pieces, or strips, and dried it in the sun. To 
their surprise, also, tliey brought in a fine, strong horse, 
which they found grazing on the meadows, lost, probably by 
some previous party. By constantly sending out the hunters, 
it was possible, not only to supply the camp with fresh meat, 
ren to lay in a stock for future use. 
fthe twenty-first of June the water became so rapid 
that'^^ie oarsmen could not force the boats against the cur- 
rent. To meet this difiiculty a tow-rope was fastened to the 
boat and then grasped by men on shore and the boat dragged 
up for n mile till past the rapids. Soon after, in passing a 
sand-bar, the tow rope broke and the large boat almost 
stranded. I^|i||^^been greatly assisted by a mast that 
was alone sufiicient in good weather and water, to propel the 
boat. But the wind grew so strong that the mast was snap- 
ped off and it was some weeks before they found time and 



'%\ii ^i 



122 LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

means to repair it. Aboiit the first of July, they pitched 
their tents for two days opposite the mouth of the Kansas 
river. Exploring parties were sent out to examine the river 
and to meet any Indian tribes, while the hunters searched 
for fresh game. Four deer and a wolf were killed and one 
young wolf was taken alive. They were surprised also one 
day by catching a large wood rat, different from any animal 
they had seen. About this time also, they began to catch 
and bring in beaver. 

On the twenty-second of July they camped at the mouth 
of the Platte river, whence the hunters were again sent out 
for bear, deer and beaver. Six men were also sent up the 
river to inform the Indians that the United States had pur- 
chased all this region, and that the Indians in the future were 
to respect their Great Father at Washington instead of the 
French king. Presents were also sent to the Indians and their 
chiefs were invited to meet Lewis and Clarke in council. 
Those who had remained in camp at the mouth of the Platte 
were busy bringing in game, drying meat, arranging stores 
and provisions, airing the goods and making new oars. While 
still proceeding up the river they sent out messengers to the 
Indian tribes to meet them on the meadows at the foot of the 
bluffs across from the present site of Omaha. Here Lewis 
and Clarke pitched their camp and some of the Indian chiefs ^^ 
came to the council and received presents. They seemed to '^ 
be pleased with the change. The peace pipe was sm^ea^ 
and the Indians agreed to remain friendly to the pdj^ of 
white men as they traveled up the great river. This wff? the 
first great council held with the Indians of the plains, and 
was near the present site of Council Bluffs. Having parted 
in friendship from the Indians, the explorers again Entered 
their boats and pushed northward. The valley of the Mis- 
souri contained groves of cottonwood at^^M^^r hard wood 
trees, but when the hunting parties haddimbed up the 
bluffs and looked out over the plains, the latter were mostly 
treeless and grassy, and the great herds of buffaloes began to 



LEWIS AND CLARKE. 123 

appear. Scouting and hunting parties were constantly sent 
out to get commanding views of the country. One of the 
men was taken sick and, although all that was possible was 
done to relieve liim, he died after a few days, and was bur- 
ied on a bluff overlooking the valley. 

They were entering the country now known as Dakota, and 
began to meet again tribes of Indians, who did not appear 
so friendly as those farther to the south. Councils were 
held and presents were given, but the savages did not seem 
to be satisfied. They were the Sioux of the prairies, who 
were invited, however, to visit the boats and were kindly 
treated. Once, after holding a council with them, Lewis and 
Clarke were preparing to re-embark, when the Indians seized 
the cable and refused to permit the vessel to launch out into 
the stream. Thinking that the Indians had evil designs, 
the leaders were on the point of giving the word to fire upon 
them, when the savages desisted and the boat drifted out in- 
to the current. They said, by way of excuse, that they only 
desired to trade longer with the whites. As the boats con- 
tinued northward, parties of Indians followed along the 
shore shouting to them to land again as there were other 
tribes coming to meet the white men. But the explorers 
deemed it safer to keep to the middle of the stream to avoid 
further contact with the savages. Autumn had now come, 
the trees were bright in tinted leaves, and tlie wild-fowl were 
flying southward. AVestward lay the country now known as 
the Black Hills, toward which the herds of deer and ante- 
lope were returning before the winter set in. 

As the cold nights came on and the waters of the river 
froze, they began to think of finding winter quarters, before 
the deep snows and the extreme cold should begin. They 
had reached the land of the Mandans and decided to seek for 
some place upon the river, where there was plenty of wood 
for fuel and buildings. After searching several days along 
the stream, they decided to return down the river a few 
miles and to pitch their winter camp upon a wooded island. 



124 LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

Having reached this spot they felled trees, and built a stock- 
ade and log huts for shelter during the Avinter. The Man- 
dans proved friendly and assisted them in building the 
cabins. Presents were exchanged with the Indians and the 
whites were attended upon their hunting parties by the 
friendly natives. These Indians were accustomed to use 
round tub-like boats, which were made of buffalo hides 
patched together. After the river had frozen over and the 
snows had fallen, they could travel up and down the valley 
or across the river on snow shoes. During the long winter 
evenings, before the blazing fires they heard curious tradi- 
tions from the Indians. The following is said to be one of 
their legends : 

"The Mandans believe that the whole tribe once lived un- 
der ground near a wide, dark lake. Above, on the earth, grew 
a grape vine which sent its roots deep into the ground and 
gave the people below their first glimpse of light. Some of 
the tribe, more adventurous than the rest, climbed the grape 
vine to the world above, and returned, bringing clusters of 
purple grapes. This wonderful deed so excited the admira- 
tion of the dwellers by the lake that they determined to climb 
the vine, and seek new homes above ground. And this would 
have been accomplished had not the vine broken under the 
weight of one very fat old lady, who tumbled backward tak- 
ing half the people with her. The remainder reached the 
light safely and lived very contentedly above ground, but 
when they died, they expected to return again to the lake and 
dwell there forever." [H. C. Wright, "Children's Stories of 
American Progress."] They learned also from the Indians, 
that "after many days journey toward the setting sun, the 
white man would come to a gorge, wondrous deep and wild, 
where the whole river plunged foaming down with thunder- 
ous roar. They even spoke with veneration of the solitary 
eagle which had built her nest in a dead cottonwood among 
the mists of the cataract." [S. A. Drake, "The Making of 
the Great West."] 



LEWIS AND CLARKE. 125 

The explorers, in their isLancl camp, were sixteen hundred 
miles from the Mississippi at St. Louis. They had already 
met with much labor and difficulty. But the remainder of 
the voyage would be still more laborious. During the win- 
ter months, they were collecting information for their future 
journey, repairing their clothing and boots and laying in 
stores of provisions. When the ice began to break up in the 
spring, the great fioes would sometimes bring down a buffalo 
or other animal which the hunters could easily slay. 

Early in the spring they were prepared to continue their 
journey. The weaker men were sent back down the river, 
while the more robust and hearty set out in high spirits to 
meet the unknown dangers. But it was now much more dif- 
ficult to force their way against the current. Shoals and rap- 
ids were frequent. The tow-lines had to be used in such 
places, or long poles, by means of which the boats were 
guided. 

The mouth of the Yellowstone was passed and on the 26th 
of May the dim outline of the Rocky mountains came into 
view, extending from north to south. The summits, white with 
snow, stretched out like a long, low line of white clouds along 
the western sky. Still, the hunting parties were daily sent 
out to bring in fresh supplies of venison and buffalo meat, 
and around the blazing logs the stories of each day's adven- 
ture were related. "On the 13th of June, while scouting in 
advance of his party, Captain Lewis saw, in the distance, a 
thin, cloud-like mist rising up out of the p»lain. To him it 
was like the guiding column which led the Israelites in the 
desert. Not doubting that it was the great fall, which the 
Mandans had told him about, and of which he was in search, 
Captain Lewis hastened toward it. He soon heard its roar 
distinctly, and in a few hours more stood on the brink of the 
cataract itself. The Indians had told him truly. Not even 
the eagle's nest was wanting to make their description com- 
plete. He was the first white man who had stood there and 
he calls it a sublime sijjht. Thirteen miles of cascades and 



126 LEWIS A.ND CLARKE. 

rapids! At headlong speed the Missouri rushes down a rocky 
gorge, through which it has torn its way, now leaping over a 
precipice, now lost to sight in the depths of the canon, a 
thousand feet below the plain, or again, as with recovered 
breath, breaking away from these dnrk gulfs into the light of 
day and bounding on again. No wonder that the discoverer 
stood forgetful of all else but this wondrous work of Nature." 
[S. A. Drake.] 

The boats were brought to a standstill at the foot 
of the series of falls and rapids. It was eighteen miles 
over a very rough country to smooth water above the falls, 
but it was decided to carry the boats and supplies round the 
falls. All the horses with which the}' had started out 
from St. Louis had long since perished. Wheels were made 
and a sort of wagon, by means of which the men dragged 
the boats and supplies overland. It took a good part of a 
month to get round the rapids, and then they found that the 
boats were not suited to the rough, narrow and rocky stream 
above the falls. From the timber stairding by the river they 
made new boats by hollowing out the trunks of large trees. 
These dugouts were not so easily dashed to pieces on the 
rocks. Proceeding in these boats, they came to where the 
river breaks its way through the foot hills or lower ranges. 
A deep, winding canon, five miles long, and in places a 
thousand feet deep, had been worn down into the rocks by 
the action of the water during past ages. Through this 
deep and gloomy passage, called by them "The Gate of the 
Mountains," they reached the ui:)per course of the river; 
They had passed near the present cite of Helena and fol- 
lowed up the northern branch of the river, named by them 
the Jefferson. 

Having come to the head of boat navigation, they stood 
at the foot of the main ridge of the Rocky mountains. 
But they also stood at the beginning of their greatest 
difficulties. How to get over this rugged, rocky wall was a 
problem still unsolved. Scouts were sent out to search for 



LEWIS AND CLARKE. 127 

Indian guides, and liorses with which to carry their baggage 
across the range. But they found neither Indians nor horses, 
and the trails leading up into the heights were lost sight of. 
It began to appear as if their forward journey was at an end, 
for a march across loft}' and unknown mountains, without 
guides, is a most dangerous undertaking. Leaving the men 
encamped at the head waters of the Jefferson, Lewis set out 
across the ridge, declaring that he would not return till he 
had found guides and horses. Climbing the precipices, he 
at length stood on the crest of the ridge, and then passing 
down the other side, entered the valley of a stream flowing 
into the Salmon river. Following this stream westward with 
great eagerness, he was pleased beyond measure at the sight 
of a village of the Shoshones or Snake Indians. They could 
scarcely believe that he had climbed the mountain ridge 
alone, without a guide. Some of them, however, returned 
with him, and supplied the whites with horses with which to 
carry their goods across the range. Having broken up camp 
on the Jefferson, they were guided by the Indians through 
rocky canons, along the edge of steep and rugged cliffs, ever 
higher and higher, till they passed over the main chain and 
descended into the valleys on the west side. 

"Almost a month was spent in getting through the moun- 
tains. Snow^ fell and water froze among those rocky heights. 
On some days fiA"e miles would be the most they could ad- 
vance. On others they could scarcely go forward at all. 
The plenty they had enjoyed on the plains gave way to 
scarcity or worse. Seldom could the hunters bring in any- 
thing but a pheasant, a squirrel or a hawk, to men famishing 
with hunger and worn down by a hard day's tramp. The 
daily food consisted mostly of berries and dried fish, of 
which every man got a mouthful, but none a full meal. 
When a horse gave out, he was killed and eaten with avidity. 
The men grew sick and dispirited under incessant labor, for 
which want of nourishing food rendered them every day 
more and more incapable. In short, every suffering which 



128 LEWIS AND CLARKE. 

cold, hunger and fatigne could bring, was borne by the ex- 
plorers. Ragged, half-starved and foot-sore, but upheld by 
the courage of their leaders, the explorers came out on the 
other side of the mountains less like conquerors than fugi- 
tives." [S. A. Drake.] From the Indians they obtained 
supplies of fish and game, and, following the smaller streams 
down to their junction with the larger, they were, at length, 
able to make boats and embark upon the river again. The 
horses wiiich had borne their packs four hundred miles 
through the mountains, were now left behind with a friendly 
tribe of Indians called the Nez Perces or Pierced Noses. 
The river was sometimes broken by falls and rapids, round 
which their boats were carried. The main river upon which 
they were floating westward was named the Lewis, and a 
great stream from the north, which combined with it to 
form the Columbia, was christened the Clarke. All along 
the river the Indians lived largely upon fish, and especially 
along the Columbia, the nets of the salmon-fishers were 
frequently found. The Indians grew more numerous as 
they approached the lower course of the river, and were 
friendly, supplying them with abundant provisions and re- 
ceiving gladly the presents brought by Lewis and Clarke. 
Having passed the great (Cascades of the Columbia, where 
it breaks through the range of the Cascade mountains, 
they were upon the smooth current of the great river in its 
last march to the sea. The voyage down the river had occu- 
pied several weeks, and it was the 7th of November before 
they saw the Pacific. The Indians on the lower course of 
the Columbia were in possession of fire arms which they had 
evidently secured from Europeans. The rainy season had 
already begun, and the men set to work tf) build cabins on 
the south bank of the river, in which to spend the winter. 
The winter months were also employed in exploring the 
country, in observing the habits of the Indians, and in study- 
ing the plants, animals and products of this far away region. 
They had journeyed about four thousand miles since leaving 



LE^YIS AND CLARKE. 



129 



St. Louis. In March, of the following spring, they started 
up the Columbia on their return voyage to St. Louis, which 
they reached the.next fall, in safety. The people of St. Louis 
received them joyfully, and Lewis and Clarke were soon able 
to make their report to the president. 




130 FREMONT. 



FREMONT. 



[authority: life of fremont and Fremont's diary. J 



In 1842, Fremont, a young explorer, employed in the ser- 
vice of the United States, resolved to explore the Eocky 
mountains and the passes in what is now Wyoming, then the 
northwest boundary of Missouri. The South Pass was that 
point in the mountains in Wyoming where the first settlers 
to Oregon had crossed the main chain of the Rocky moun- 
tains. Fremont desired to examine this region of country, 
to measure the height of the mountains and of the pass, and 
to find the best road for westward travel. 

At St. Louis he had collected twenty-one men, mostly 
Creole and Canadian trappers, who knew the country toward 
the west, having worked for the great fur-companies in St. 
Louis. Mr. Preuss, a German, assisted Fremont with the 
surveying instruments. Kit Carson was his guide. All the 
men were armed and mounted on horse-back, except eight, 
who had charge of eight carts, drawn by mules. In the carts 
were put the provisions, such as sugar, bacon, crackers, salt, 
dried meat and coffee, tobacco, clothing, blankets, and tools, 
as presents to the Indians, and the surveying instruments. 
Each cart was drawn by two mules, and some loose horses 
and oxen were driven along to be used for special need. 

On the 12th of July, they reached Fort Laramie, and 



FREMONT. 131 

found that the Cheyenne and Sioux Indians were in a bad 
state of feeling towards the whites, because the Indians in a 
recent quarrel with the whites had lost eight or ten warriors. 
It was rumored at the fort that eight hundred Indian lodges 
were in motion against the whites. Fremont's men, though 
accustomed to such dangers, became uneasy on account of 
these stories and reports that numerous parties of Indians 
were on the war path. Even Carson said it was very 
dangerous for Fremont's party to advance. He was afraid 
that the Indians might attack them before finding out who 
they were. Fremont, however, believed that the rumors were 
exaggerated, and decided to take with him an interpreter and 
some old Indians, so as to make friends with the war parties, 
should he meet them. 

While Fremont was camped at Fort Laramie, a large 
Indian village came up and pitched its tents near. The 
Indians made frequent visits to the tents of Fremont's men, 
and the chiefs to Fremont's lodge. " Now and then an Indian 
would dart up to the tent on horse-back, jerk off his trappings, 
and stand silently at the door, signifying his desire to trade. 
Occasionally a savage would stalk in with an invitation to a 
feast of honor, a dog feast, and deliberately sit down and wait 
quietly till I was ready to accompany him. I went to one; 
the women and children were sitting outside the lodge, and 
we took our seats on buffalo robes spread around. The dog 
was in a large pot over the fire, in the middle of the lodge; 
and immediately upon our arrival was dished u]) in large 
wooden bowls, one of which was handed to each. The fiesh 
had something of the flavor and appearanre of mutton. Feel- 
ing something move behind me, I looked around and found 
that I liad taken my seat among a litter of fat young puppies. 
Fortunately I was not of delicate nerves, and continued to 
empty my platter. The Indian village consisted principally 
of old men, women and children. They had a considerable 
number of horses and large companies of dogs. Their lodges 
were pitched near the fort, and our camp was constantly 



132 FREMONT. 

crowded witli Indians of all sizes, from morning till night, 
at which time some of the soldiers came to drive them all 
off to the village. My tent Avas the only place which they 
respected. Here came only the chiefs and men of distinc- 
tion, and one of them usually remained to drive away the 
women and children. The numerous strange instruments, 
applied to still stranger uses, excited awe and admiration 
among them, and those which I used in talking with the sun 
and stars, they looked upon with special reverence, as mys- 
terious things of 'great medicine.'" [Fremont.] 

Fremont had with him chronometers, large thermometers, 
transit instruments and barometers, for the purpose of keep- 
ing a record of the temperature, rain fall, height of places, 
and their latitude and longitude. Before setting out on the 
mountain trip, several of the instruments were left at the 
fort. The longitude of Fort Laramie was found to be 184^ 
47' 48." By means of the barometer the elevation of the 
fort above the Gulf of Mexico was found to be four thousand 
four hundred and seventy feet. 

During our stay here the men had been engaged in mak- 
ing numerous repairs, arranging pack-saddles and otherwise 
preparing for the chances of a rough road and mountain 
travel. As it was a dangerous journey, Fremont called the 
men together, told them he was determined to go on, but 
if any of them desired to return, they could take their pay 
and be idismissed. Only one man, however, accepted the 
offer, and^lie was laughed at as a coward. 

Just as Fremont and his men had saddled and mounted 
their horses and geared up their mules, several of the old 
Indian chiefs, tall, powerful men, forced their way to him 
and told him not to proceed, as the young warriors would 
be sure to fire upon his men, Fremont believed that 
they only desired to keep the whites at the fort in order to 
trade with them and to prevent Fremont from exploring the 
country. He replied that they were determined to advance 
and if the young warriors attacked them, to defend themselves 



FREMONT. 133 

with their rifles, but they were not disturbed further, by the 
Indians, on their journey, after having set out. At the close 
of the week however, they met a worse enemy in a scarcity of 
provisions, "a great drouth, and the grasshoppers having 
swept the country, so that not a bhide of grass was to be 
seen nor a buffalo to be found through the whole region- 
Some Sioux Indians, whom they met, said that their people 
were nearly starved to death, had abandoned their villages, 
and their receding tracks might be marked by the carcasses 
of horses strewed along the road, which they had either eaten 
or which had died of starvation." Fremont again called his 
men together, explained to them the facts, and declared his 
purpose to keep on to the mountains. He knew that some of 
the men would remain faithful to him. Tiiey still had ten 
days provisions, and if no game could be found, they had 
their horses and mules which they could eat when other sup- 
plies gave out. But not a man now desired to desert. Fre- 
mont sent back the interpreter and an Indian guide who had 
come with them thus far. 

They were just at the edge of the foot hills, in full view 
of the great snow-covered chain of the Eocky mountains. 
Fremont resolved to leave behind and conceal everything 
that would not be needed for their mountain journey. So they 
turned in toward the bank of the Platte river where there 
was a thick grove of willow trees. The carts were taken to 
pieces and the wheels and other parts carried into some low 
places among the willows and concealed among the dense 
foliage, so that no straggling Indian might see them. In the 
sand, among the willows, a large hole was dug, ten feet square 
and six feet deep. All their goods, not needed for the moun- 
tain journey, were carefully covered up in this hole or cache. 
Then the ground was smoothed over and all traces removed. 
A good rain was all that was necessary to make their hidden 
supplies perfectly safe from Indians. Then they arranged 
their packs and loaded them upon the animals. 

Tlie day was calm and clear, except where clouds were 



134 FKEMONT. 

seen along the tops of the mountains. "One lodge had been 
planted, and, on account of the heat of the afternoon, the 
ground pins had been taken oat and the lower part slightly 
raised. Near it was standing the barometer, which swung in 
a tripod frame. Within the lodge, where a small fire was 
built, Mr. Preuss was occupied in observing the temperature 
of boiling water. At this instant, and without any warning 
until within fifty yards, a violent gust of wind dashed down 
and overturned the lodge, burying under it, Mr. Pruess and 
about a dozen men, wdio had attempted to keep it from being 
carried away. T succeeded in saving the barometer which 
the lodge was carrying off with itself, but the thermometer 
was broken and we had no other so good." 

Fremont and his party now followed the Platte river to 
where the Sweet- Water enters it from the northwest, then 
turning up the narrow valley of the Sweet- Water, he came to 
South Pass, on the eighth of August. It is a wide, low de- 
pression of the mountains, with an easy slope and a plainly 
beaten wagon track leads across the mountains. Fremont 
went through this pass and came upon the head waters of the 
Colorado, which flows into the Pacific. 

In crossing a fork of the Green river, the current was 
so swift that the barometer was accidentally broken. It was 
the only barometer he had left and without it he could not 
measure the height of mountains. He says: "A great part 
of the interest of the journey for me, was in the exploration 
of these mountains, of which so much had been said that 
was doubtful and contradictory, and now' the snowy peaks 
rose majestically before me, and the only means of giving 
them accurately to science, the object of my anxious solici- 
tude by night and day, was destroyed. AVe had brought this 
barometer in safety a thousand miles, and broke it almost 
among the snows of the mountains. The loss was felt by the 
whole camp — all had seen my anxiety and aided me in pre- 
serving it. The height of these mountains, considered by 
the hunters and traders the highest in the w^hole range, had 



FREMONT. 135 

been a matter of constant discussion among them, and all 
had looked forward with pleasnre to the moment when the 
instrument, which they believed to be as true as the sun, 
should stand upon the mountains and decide their dispute. 
Their .2;rief was only inferior to my own." The tube of the 
cistern had been broken about midway. When they had 
made camp, Fremont spent the rest of that day and the next 
in trying to repair the broken barometer. At last, by means 
of a piece of transparent horn, which he boiled and scraped 
thin, and with glue, obtained from buffalo hoofs, he succeeded 
in repairing the break, and found that the instrument regis- 
tered the same on the shores of the lake as before it was broken. 
His success in this experiment brought pleasure to the whole 
camp. 

His chief purpose was to climb what was regarded as the 
highest peak of the Eocky mountains, now known as Fre- 
mont's Peak, On August fifteenth they took a hearty break- 
fast, covering what was left, (dried meat and coflee, enough 
for anotlier good meal,) with rocks. Saddling their mules, 
Fremont and five companions turned their faces toward the 
rocky summits and began to leave the valleys behind. The 
mules had been refreslied by the fine grass in the little ravine 
of their last camp. Through a deep defile of the mountains, 
where the sun rarely shone and where they had to pass many 
steep and rocky places, they rode along. Near the foot of 
this ravine they found themselves at the end of an almost 
perpendicular wall of granite, from two thousand to three 
thousand feet high. At the end of this valley and just at the 
foot of the main peak they found three small lakes, each about 
one thousand yards in diameter and filling a very deep chasm. 
The mules thus far had shown wonderful sure-footedness, 
leaping from rock to rock without causing the riders to dis- 
mount. About a hundred feet above the lake they n^ere 
turned loose to graze. The six men prepared now to climb 
to the top of the peak. Taking off everything they did not 
need, they climbed leisurely, stopping to rest as often as 



136 FEEMONT. 

necessary. They saw springs gushing from the rocks, and 
about eighteen hundred feet above the lakes reached the 
snow line. From this point on it was steep climbing, and 
Fremont put on a pair of thin moccasins instead of the usual 
thick-soled ones. At one place they had to put hands and 
feet into the crevices between the rocks to scale the side. 
At last they reached the crest, a pointed rock, and found on 
the other side a steep, icy precipice, ending in a snow field 
five hundred feet below. The top rock was only about three 
feet wide and sloping. The meu ascended to this point one 
at a time. They stack a ramrod in the snow of the summit 
and unfurled the stars and stripes. They also set up the 
barometer on the summit, and found that it was thirteen 
thousand five hundred and seventy feet above the Gulf of 
Mexico. As the men sat there thinking themselves to be far 
above all animal life, a solitary bumble bee came flying by. 
The only live thing they had seen on their climb was a little 
sparrow-like bird. They had also collected flowers, growing 
in abundance on the very edge of the snow. These plants 
and flowers were carefully examined, preserved and pressed 
between the leaves of books. 

The day was sunny and bright. On the west they could 
see many lakes and streams, the headwaters of the Colorado. 
On the north was the Wind river valley, in which were 
the head waters of the Yellowstone. Still farther to the 
north they could see the "Trois Tetons," near the source of 
the Missouri and the Columbia. To the southeast were the 
mountains in which the Platte river rises. "All around us 
the whole scene had one main striking feature, which was 
that of terrible convulsion. Parallel to its length, the ridge 
was split into chasms and fissures, between which rose the 
thin, lofty walls terminated with slender minarets and col- 
umns. The little lakes at our feet were 2,780 feet below us." 

It was two o'clock when they prepared to descend from 
the summit When tliey reached the lakes the sun had 
already set behind the mountain wall. Having found the 



FREMONT. 137 

mules again and re-mounted, they reached their deposit of 
provisions at night fall. " Here we lay down on the rocks, 
and in spite of the cold, slept soundly." 

On the seventeenth of August, having reached the main 
camp, the order was given to turn homeward. Fremont re- 
solved, instead of following by land the general course of 
the Platte, as before, to venture with a boat and with five 
companions down the canons, where the river had broken its 
way through the mountains to the plains on the east. The 
larger part of his men going on horseback, were to meet him 
again at Goat Island, in the Platte river after it passes 
through the canons. The Indians had told strange stories of 
cataracts, rocks and whirlpools, but no one had ever gone 
through this gate of the mountains, in a boat. The boat was 
of India-rubber, light, and loaded with the instruments, 
baggage and provisions of six men for ten days. 

" We paddled down the river rapidly, for our little craft 
was light as a duck in the water. When the sun was up a 
little way, we heard below us a hollow roar which we sup- 
posed to be that of the falls. We were approaching a canon, 
where the river passes between perpendicular rocks of great 
height, which frequently approach each other so closely over- 
head as to form a kind of tunnel over the stream that foams 
along below, half choked up by fallen fragments." We passed 
three cataracts in succession, with perhaps one hundred feet 
of smooth water between, and finally, with a shout of pleasure, 
issued from one tunnel into the open day beyond. We were 
so delighted with the performance of our boat that we would 
not have hesitated to leap a fall of ten feet with her. We 
put to shore for breakfast at some willows on the right bank, 
for we were wet and hungry. 

"Then we embarked again and in twenty minutes reached 
the next canon. Landing on a rocky shore at its commence- 
ment, we ascended the ridge to reconnoitre. Portage was 
out of of the question. So far as we could see, the jagged 
rocks pointed out the course of the canon, on a winding line 



138 FREMONT. 

of seven or eight miles. It was simply a dark chasm in the 
rock, two hundred or thee hundred feet deep at the entrance, 
and farther down five hundred feet. Our previous success 
had made us bold, and we determined to run the second 
canon. Every thing was secured as firmly as possible, and 
having divested ourselves of the greater part of our clothing, 
we pushed into the stream. Mr. Preuss, to save the chro- 
nometer, tried to carry it along the shore. But soon there 
was no shore except the steep rocks. An ugly pass lay be- 
fore us. We made fast to the stern of the boat a strong 
rope fifty feet long, and three of the men clambered along 
among the rocks, and with this rope, let her down slowly 
through the pass. In several places, high rocks lay scattered 
about in the channel, and in the narrows it required all our 
strength and skill to avoid staving the boat on the sharp 
points. In one of these the boat proved a little too broad 
and stuck fast for an instant, while the water flowed over us. 
Fortunately, it was but for an instant, as our united strength 
forced her immediately through. The water swept over 
board only a sextant and a pair of saddle-bags. The sextant 
I caught as it passed me, but the saddle-bags became the 
prey of the whirl-pools. 

"We reached the place where Mr. Pruess was standing, 
took him on board, and with the aid of the boat, pat the 
men with the rope on the succeeding pile of rocks. AVe 
found this passage much worse than the previous one, and 
our position was rather a bad one. To go back Avas impossi- 
ble, before us the cataract was a sheet of foam and shut up 
in the chasm by the rocks, which, in some places, seemed 
almost to meet overhead, the roar of the water was deafen- 
ing. We pushed off again, but after making a little distance, 
the force of the current became too great for the men on 
shore, and two of them let go the rope. The third man, 
Basil, held on and was jerked headforemost into the river, 
from a rock aboat twelve feet high. Down the boat flew like 
an arrow, Basil following us in the rapid current, and exert- 



FREMONT. 139 

ing all his strongtli to keep in mid-channel, his head only 
seen occasionally like a black spot in the foam. How far we 
went, I do not know, but we succeeded in turning the boat 
into an eddy below. Basil arrived immediately after us and 
we took him on board. He owed his life to his skill as a 
swimmer. We now placed ourselves on our knees, with the 
short paddles in our hands, the most skillful boatman being 
at the bow, and again we commenced our rapid descent. We 
cleared rock after rock, shot past fall after fall, our little boat 
seeming to play with the cataract. We became flushed with 
success and familiar with the danger, and yielding ourselves 
to the excitement of the occasion, broke forth together into 
a Canadian boat-song. Singing, or rather shouting, we 
dashed along and were in the midst of the chorus, when the 
boat struck a concealed rock at the foot of a fall, which 
whirled her over in an instant. My first feeling was to assist 
the men, and save some of the effects. But a sharp concus- 
sion or two convinced me that I had not yet saved myself. 
A few strokes brought me into an eddy, and I landed on a 
pile of rocks on the left side. Mr. Preuss had gained the 
shore on the opposite side, about twenty yards below. On 
the other side, against the wall, lay the boat, bottom side up. 
Lambert, (one of the men,) was in the act of saving Desco- 
teau, whom he grasped by the hair. 

"For a hundred yards below, the current was covered with 
floating books and boxes, bales and blankets and scattered 
articles of clothing. So strong and boiling was the stream, 
that even our heavy instruments, which were all in cases, 
kept on the surface, and the sextant, circle and the long 
black box of the telescope were at once in view. All our 
books and almost every record of the journey had been lost 
in a moment. But it was no time to indulge in regrets. 1 
immediately set about endeavoring to save something from 
the wreck. Making ourselves understood as w^ell as possible 
by signs — for nothing could be heard in the roar of waters— 
we commenced operations. Of everything on board, the only 



140 FREMONT. 

article that had been saved was my double-barreled gun, 
which Descoteau had caught and clung to with drowning 
tenacity. The men kept down the river on the left bank, 
Basil, with a paddle in his hand, jumped into the boat alone 
and continued down the canon. She was now light and 
cleared every bad place with much less difficulty. In a short 
time he was joined by Lambert, and the search was kept up 
for a mile and a half, which was as far as the boat could go. 
Here the walls were about five hundred feet high and the 
fragments of rocks from above had choked the river into a 
hollow pass. Through this, and between the rocks, the water 
found its way. Favored beyond our expectations, all our 
journals but one, had been recovered. Other journals, how- 
ever, contained duplicates of the one lost. Besides these, 
we saved the circle and a few blankets. 

"The day was running rapidly away, and it was necessary 
to reach Goat Island below, whither the other party had pre- 
ceded us, before night. Should anything have occurred in 
the brief interval of our separation to prevent our rejoining 
them, our situation would be rather a desperate one. We 
had not a morsel of provisions — our arms and ammunition 
were gone, so that we were in danger of starvation, and were 
entirely at the mercy of any straggling party of savages. 
We set out at once in two parties, Mr. Preuss and myself on 
the left, and the men on the opposite side of tlie river. 
Climbing out of the canon we found ourselves in a very 
broken country, interrupted with ravines and ridges, which 
made our walk extremely fatiguing. At one point of the 
canon the red sandstone rose in a wall of five hundred feet, 
surmounted by a stratum of white sandstone. In an oppo- 
site ravine a column of red sandstone rose in form like a 
steeple, about one hundred and fifty feet high. The scenery 
was extremely j)icturesque and, in spite of our forlorn con- 
dition, we were frequently obliged to admire it. Oar pro- 
gress was not very rapid. We had emerged from the water 
half naked and on arriving at the top of the precipice I found 



FREMONT. 141 

myself with only one moccasin. The fragments of rock made 
walking painful, and I was frequently obliged to stop and 
pull out the thorns of the cactus, here the prevailing j)lant, 
and with which a few minutes' walk covered tlie bottoms of 
my feet. From this ridge and canon the river emerged into 
a smiling prairie, and, descending to the bank of the river, 
we were joined by Benoist. The rest of the other party 
were out of sight. We crossed the river repeatedly, some- 
times able to ford it, and sometimes swimiiiing, climbing 
over two more ridges, through which the river cut its way, 
in canons, and toward evening, reached the cut made by the 
river, which we named the Hot Spring Gate." 

"As we entered this cut, Mr. Preuss was a few hundred 
feet in advance. Heated with the long march, he came sud- 
denly upon a fine bold spring, gushing from the rock about 
ten feet above the river. Eager to enjoy the crystal water, 
he threw himself down for a hasty draught, and took a mouth- 
ful of almost boiling water. We had no thermometer to as- 
certain the temperature, but I could hold my hand in the 
water just long enough to count two seconds. There are eight 
or ten of these springs discharging themselves by strearps 
large enough to be called runs. A loud noise was heard 
from the rock, which I suppose to be produced by the fall of 
the water. After a short walk beyond this cut, we reached 
a red ridge through which the river passed, just above Goat 
Island." At Goat Island they expected to meet all their 
party in camp again. ''Ascending this ridge we found fresh 
tracks and a button, which showed that the other men had 
already arrived. A shout from th*^ men who ijad first 
reached the top of the ridge, responded to from below, in- 
formed us that our friends were all on the island, and we 
were soon among them. We found some pieces of buffalo 
standing around the fire for us, and managed to get some 
dry clothes among the people. A sudden storm of rain 
drove us into the best shelter we could find, where we slept 
soundly after one of the most fatiguing days 1 have ever 



142 



FREMONT. 



experienced." Fremont and his party returned by way of 
the Platte river and the Missouri to St. Louis, which he 
reached October seventeenth. Twelve days later he was in 
Washington, where his report for the expedition was soon in 
the hands of the government. 




DE SOTO. 143 



DE SOTO. 



[aUTHOKITIKS : "LIFE OI' DE SOTO," BY ABBOTT. "HISTORY OF UNITED 
STATES," BY BANCROFT 



De Soto was a rich and noble Spaniard who came to 
Florida in 1539, to seek for riches and gold among the In- 
dians then living in what is now the Southern states. In 
those days, almost nothing Avas known of this region, for it 
had been but a few years since Columbus first oijened up a 
way to the New World. They did not even know about the 
Mississippi river. But the Spaniards believed that there 
was great wealth of gold in the interior, if anyone were brave 
enough to fight his way through Indians and swamps to 
reach it. De Soto, also, was not only rich, but much admired 
for his strength and courage in battle. When he had asked 
permission of the King of Spain to conquer Florida and all 
the region to the north and west of it, not only was this re- 
quest granted, but many brave and noble young Spaniards 
joined him, to share the adventures and profits of the con- 
quest. When De Soto, therefore, landed at Tampa Bay, on 
the west coast of Florida, in May of the year 1539, he had a 
splendid army of more than six hundred well-armed men, 
besides the sailors and others who had come as helpers with 
the expedition. The Spanish soldiers were not only armed 



144 DE SOTO. 

■with guns, swords and spears, but were clad in coats of mail 
and supplied with shields. More than three hundred horses 
had been taken along for the rich young noblemen and for the 
cavalry. The young nobles were richly dressed, and when 
the cavalry and infantry were in battle line, they presented a 
splendid appearance. Many supplies were needed for such 
a long and dangerous expedition into an unknown country. 
Blacksmiths' forges and workmen were also needed. Abun- 
dant clothing, weapons and gifts for the Indians had to be 
carried. A large herd of hogs was driven along with the 
army, to supply meat when needed, and to feed on the nuts 
of the forest. For all the men and the supplies, eight large 
vessels and two smaller ones had been employed in making 
the voyage from Havana, in Cuba, to Tampa Bay. 

Tlie Indians around Tampa Bay were found to be hostile, 
because twelve years before, Narvaez, with a small Spanish 
army, had landed in this very place and had practiced great 
cruelties upon the Indians. De Soto and his army marched 
to a large Indian village about six miles from Tampa Bay. 
The houses had been deserted by the natives, who fled to the 
swamps. De Soto's desire was not to practice cruelty, but to 
establish friendship with the Indians. He tried to win their 
friendship by sending kind messages and presents to their 
chiefs. But they remembered too well the cruelty of Nar- 
vaez, and refused to listen. Being told by some captive 
natives that there was gold to the north, the delighted Span- 
iards, leaving a small garrison at the first town, set out north- 
ward. But now the real difficulties began to appeal-. Florida 
is a very swampy country, there "were no roads, and even the 
secret paths and fords were known only to the Indians. The 
Indian guides led the strangers purposely into the worst 
bogs. In marching northward, De Soto's army soon came to 
a wide swamp, full of tangled roots and trees, and three miles 
in breadth. At length a narrow path was found through 
whicli they pushed their way, and, after a most difficult 
march, the army came upon a smiling prairie. But crossing 



DE SOTO. 145 

this, they found directly in their line of march a still more 
difficult morass, in the center of which was a stream too deep 
to ford. De Soto, after vainly trying to find a crossing, was 
compelled to make a camp and send out scouting parties to 
seek a passage to the north. Meanwhile, his army was in 
sore need of provisions. After great difficulties, the army 
reached a large Indian village, Ochili, and entering it by 
night, with the noise of drums and in battle array, De Soto 
held a conference with the chief, and established friendship. 

This young chief had two older brothers who were 
chiefs of neighboring tribes. These brothers feigned 
great friendship for the Spaniards, but formed a secret 
plan to kill all the foreigners at once. They invited De 
Soto to witness a great parade of several thousand Indian 
warriors, who were to appear on the plain unarmed. Their 
arms, however, were concealed in the grass. Twelve of the 
stoutest Indian warriors were to seize and kill De Soto. 
Friendly Indians, however, revealed the plot to De Soto, and 
both he and his men were fully prepared. At the signal 
from the chief to fall upon the Spaniards, the bugle sounded 
for the Spaniards also to make the attack. A fierce battle 
was fought for many hours, but the natives were defeated, 
and the older chief taken prisoner. After the battle, De 
Soto reproached the chief for his treachery, but still treated 
him kindly, and gave him a seat at his own table, because he 
still hoped to secure the friendship of the tribe. In spite of 
this, a second plot was laid, to rise against the Spaniards at 
a great feast. The chief himself, though a prisoner, was to 
give the signal At the close of the feast, he sprung up sud- 
denly, raised the war-whoop, and dealt De Soto a blow in 
the face which laid him senseless upon the floor. But before 
he could give a second blow, he was pierced by Spanish 
swords, and the Indians were again defeated, after a fierce 
conflict, and severely punished. 

Marching to the northwest, after these misfortunes, the 
Spaniards, while in search of a better region, camped upon 

10 



146 DE SOTO. 

another great and wide-extended swamp. The narrow and 
difficult paths tiirough this swamp gave the Indians another 
excellent opportunity to attack the Spaniards, and they did 
so constantly. But the army, having fought its way through 
the swamp and forest, at last, came out into the open 
country, where the men on horseback could fight to advan- 
tage and protect the army on its march. But at night and 
in crossing the streams, they were constantly distressed by 
the natives, who would creep up and shoot their arrows into 
the camp, or defend the fords of the rivers with ambus- 
cades. Hearing that he was only five or six miles from the 
chief town of a warlike tribe, De Soto himself rode forward 
with three hundred men and entered it, the natives having 
fled. The town is supposed to have stood not far from the 
present city of Tallahassee. The dwelling of the chief, 
Capafi, was here, and about two hundred and fifty other 
houses. The country round about Avas fertile, and food was 
abundant. Corn, pumpkins and beans grew in the fields and 
the foraging parties sent out, returned with vegetables. But 
the warlike Indians were constantly attacking the exploring 
companies. The former were always defeated, but some of the 
Spaniards were also killed by the Indians. De Soto desired 
greatly to make peace with this people, because nothing was 
to be gained by this kind of constant warfare. The Span- 
iards longed only to find mines of gold, and these battles 
but increased their difficulties in the search for the gold 
regions which they believed to exist somewhere in the south- 
ern states. 

De Soto sent many and costly presents to Capafi, and 
tried to win his friendship. But Capafi, while accepting the 
presents, kept sending out his fierce bands to annoy the 
Spaniards. It was also a curious and perplexing fact that 
Capafi himself never appeared, as other chiefs, at the head 
of his warriors. Nor could De Soto find out where he lived. 
But at last he was informed through captives, that Capafi 
was unable to head his warriors because he was so fat that he 



DE SOTO. 147 

could hardly walk, and was carried on a litter. He was, how- 
ever, a very shrewd chief and knew how to command his 
tribe. De Soto determined to capture the fat ruler, for 
the Indians have great respect for the chief, and in this 
way he hoped to bring the tribe to accept peace. Having 
learned also that the chief and his warriors had forti- 
fied themselves in the center of a swamp, surrounded by 
forests, thickets and marshy gz-ound, De Soto himself led 
out a party of select men to capture him. Mr. Irving re- 
lates: "In the heart of this close and impervious forest, a 
piece of ground was cleared and fortified for the residence of 
the chief and his warriors. The only entrance or outlet was 
by a narrow path cut through the forest. At every hundred 
paces, this path was barricaded by palisades and trunks of 
trees, at each of which was posted a guard of the bravest 
warriors. Thus the fat chief was ensconced in the midst of 
the forest, like a spider in the midst of his web, and his de- 
voted subjects were ready to defend Jjim to the last gasp. 
AVhen De Soto arrived at the entrance to the perilous defile, 
he found the enemy well prepared for its defence. The 
Spaniards pressed forward, but the path was so narrow that 
the two foremost only could engage in the combat. They 
gained the first and the second palisades at the point of the 
sword. There it was necessary to cut the osiers and other 
bands with which the Indians had fastened the beams. 
While thus occupied they were exposed to a galling fire and 
received many wounds. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, 
they gained one palisade after the other, until, by hard fight- 
ing, they arrived at the place of refuge of the cliief. The 
conflict lasted a long time, Avith many feats of prowess on 
both sides. The Indians, however, for want of defensive 
armor, fought on unequal terms and were most of them cut 
down. The chief called out to the survivors to surrender. 
The latter, having done all that good soldiers could do, and 
seeing all their warlike efforts in vain, threw themselves on 
their knees before De Soto and offered up their lives, but 



148 DE SOTO. 

entreated him to spare the life of their chief. De Soto was 
moved by their valor and their loyalty. Receiving them with 
kindness, he assured them of his pardon for the past and 
that henceforth he would consider them as friends. Capafi 
not being able to walk, was borne in the arms of his atten- 
dants to kiss the hands of De Soto, who, well pleased to have 
him in his power, treated him with kindness." Pleased with 
his success, De Soto set out for the town. But although the 
fat chieE was a captive, his band still fiercely attacked the 
Spaniards. The chief seemed grieved at this, but said that 
he c 'ukl not hinder them as any orders sent by him would 
be interpreted as coming rather from De Soto. He said, 
moreover, that his chief warriors were encamped in a forest 
some thirty miles away and if De Soto would send him thither 
with a band of Spaniards, he felt sure he could persuade 
them to make peace. A chosen band of men, with Indian 
guides, was sent out to accomplish this purpose. After hard 
marching they reached the edge of this forest, and scouts 
were sent to the warriors, to persuade them toward peace. 
The soldiers being tired, a guard was set and the men fell 
asleep. But the guards also fell asleep, not thinking it pos- 
sible for the fat chief to escape. While the men were all 
resting, he managed to crawl out, on hands and knees, into 
the thick forest, and was received by a band of his warriors 
and swiftly carried by them to a place of safety. 

When the men awoke, they were astonished, bewildered 
and frightened. They feared the anger of De Soto. The 
sentinels declared that they had seen evil spirits come dur- 
ing the night and carry off the fat chief. But De Soto re- 
ceived these explanations with a good-natured smile, and 
replied that strange things happened among the Indians. 

From the first, De Soto and his soldiers practiced many 
cruelties upon the Indians. They took prisoners and com- 
pelled them to act as guides or servants. Some of the Span- 
ish leaders had come to Florida for the special purpose of 
making slaves of the Indians and of carrying them to Cuba to 



DE SOTO. 149 

work on their estates. They had brought blood-hounds with 
them, to let loose upon the runaway slaves. Some of the 
Indian guides, who had led the Spaniards astray among the 
swamps had been torn to pieces by the blood-hounds. The 
Spaniards had also brought chains and fetters with which 
they bound the captive Indians. During the first winter a 
large number of the natives were captured and reduced to 
servitude and were compelled to gather provisions and carry 
the baggage of their masters while upon the march. 

After wintering in the town near Tallahassee the Span- 
iards, believing there were rich kingdoms in the interior, 
marched toward the north-east. Some of the tribes and 
chiefs proving friendly permitted the army to pass through 
their territory and supplied them with food. In going across 
the country, from one tribe to another, the army was once 
lost in the wilderness of forests and almost starved. By 
sending out scouts in all directions, after several days, villa- 
ges were discovered, toward which they marched. Deep rivers 
had to be crossed such as the Altamaha and its tributaries, 
the Ogeechee and Savannah. They were now not far from 
the Atlantic ocean and some of the men felt like turning 
homeward. But De Soto resolutely set his face to the north- 
west, hoping to find rich regions of gold. They marched 
across northern Georgia, through the country of the Chero- 
kees, finding the people poor, and with but little to give them 
except deer skins and wild hens. Scouting parties, sent out 
to the north, saw the southern ridges of the Alleghanies and 
said they were impassable, but reported no mines of gold or 
silver. Turning toward the southwest, they spent several 
weeks in the valleys of the Coosa and Alabama rivers. At 
the town of Coosa in northeastern Alabama, the friendly 
chief treated De Soto hospitably, and entertained him for 
twenty-five days. From Coosa he marched to the southwest, 
hoping to meet at Pensacola, a Spanish fieet with supplies, 
which he had ordered to be brought thither from Cuba. In 
marching through the country the Spaniards admired the fine 



150 DE SOTO. 

fields of maize aud enjoyed the abundant wild grapes. The 
great kingdom of Tuscaloosa, including much of Alabama 
and Mississippi, now lay in their patii. In October, they 
reached the town of Mobile, the capital, situated on the Ala- 
bama river, about one hundred miles from Pensacola. Irving 
describes the place as follows: "This 'Was the stronghold of 
the chief, where he and his principal men resided. It stood 
in a fine plain and was surrounded by a high wall, formed of 
huge trunks of trees driven into the ground, side by side, 
and wedged together. These were crossed, within and with- 
out, by others, smaller and longer, bound to them by bands 
made of split reeds aud wild vines. The whole was thickly 
plastered over with a kind of mortar, made of clay and straw 
trampled together, so that it appeared as if smoothed by a 
trowel. Throughout its whole circuit, the wall was pierced, 
at the height of a man, with loop-holes whence arrows might 
be discharged at an enemy, and at every fifty paces it was 
surmounted by a tower, capable of holding six or seven fight- 
ing men." 

De Soto, with the vanguard of his army, had marched 
into this place and taken up quarters in the houses, stor- 
ing the baggage and equipments within the walls. But 
the natives had collected in large numbers, apparently as 
friends, when the war-whoop was suddenly raised and a fierce 
conflict began. The horses had been left outside and the 
Indians within the walls were much more numerous than the 
Spaniards. De Soto, at the head of his men, retreated slow- 
ly till they reached their horses outside the walls. The 
natives also rushed out into the plain in great numbers and 
fiercely assailed the Spaniards. But the latter, clad in heavy 
armor and on horse-back, charged fiercely upon the throngs 
of savages and cut them down with sabre-strokes. The In- 
dians were driven back into the town. Again within the 
walls the battle was fiercely renewed in the streets and upon 
the public square. The Indians fought with great bravery, 
and killed and wounded many of the Spaniards. They were 



DE SOTO. 151 

also protected by the houses. Seeing the battle growing 
desperate, De Soto, though severely wounded, remained in the 
midst of his men. To drive the warriors from the houses, 
he set fire to the town in many places. Soon the whole 
place was in flames and all were compelled to flee. The 
Spanish, reaching the plain first, from their mounted horses, 
cut down the fugitive Indians as they escaped from the town. 
Twenty-five hundred Indians are said to have perished, 
though this is probably exaggerated. Of the Spaniards, 
eighteen were killed, and one hundred and fifty wounded, 
twelve horses were slain and many others injured. A large 
part of the baggage of the Spaniards Avithin the town had 
been completely destroyed. It was a very expensive victory 
for the whites, and they were compelled to remain here many 
days, recovering themselves from the effects of the battle. 

In the meantime, the vessels sent for had arrived at Pen- 
sacola with supplies for the Spanish army. But De Soto had 
no good news of discovered gold mines or of rich kingdoms 
conquered to send back to Cuba and Spain. He resolved 
therefore to send no word to the ships at Peusacola, and to 
receive no help. But turning his face toward the northwest 
he set out again in search of rich provinces to conquer. Be- 
fore winter set in he reached a town among the Chickasaws, 
in northern Mississippi. The country was poor and the town 
deserted, but the army was able to collect corn and other 
food suflicient for the winter. De Soto sent kindly messages 
to the Indians, who had fled, and presents for the chief. He 
in turn sent the Spaniards corn and venison and other game^ 
but would not venture himself among the Spaniards. With 
the opening of spring, De Soto demanded of the chief two 
hundred men as slaves, to carry the baggage of the army. 
The Indians were loth to grant this request, and prepared 
for a secret midnight attack upon the village. The warriors 
had collected in great numbers, and coming into the village, 
deceiving the sentinels, they set fire to many of the huts. 
Then raising the war-whoop, they swarmed upon the Span- 



152 DE SOTO. 

iards, who seized their arms and tried to repel the savages. 
Some of the Spaniards perished in the flames, so sudden was 
the onset. Soon both jjarties were driven from the burning 
town, and a fierce battle raged in the light of the burning 
huts. The Spaniards at length drove off the savages after 
great loss. Many horses and men perished. Their clothing, 
arms and supplies were consumed, many horses were killed 
and even most of the swine that were left had been smoth- 
ered in the flames. It was the greatest disaster that had yet 
befallen them. De Soto was deeply disheartened. The 
Spaniards were now almost naked, and suffered from the 
cold. "Had the Indians made a resolute attack, the soldiers 
would have been unable to resist, but in the course of a week 
forges were erected, swords newly tempered, and good ashen 
lances were made, so that when the Indians attacked them 
again they were prepared. " 

Leaving the burnt ruins of the village, they built another 
camp of logs, where they spent several miserable weeks, 
while the wounded recovered and preparations were made to 
march westward, and escape from this hostile neighborhood. 
In April they set forth and soon came to a wilderness of 
marshes and bayous through which they toiled for seven 
days before reaching an Indian village that stood on the 
bank of a great stream. It was the Mississippi, more than 
a mile wide, very deep and muddy, and carrying upon its 
strong current stumps and trunks of trees. They were .the 
first white men to see this great stream, which now checked 
their march. "The Spaniards were guided by natives to one 
of the usual crossing-places, probably at the lowest Chicka- 
saw bluffs, not far from the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude. 
The arrival of the strangers awakened curiosity and fear. A 
multitude of people from the western banks of the river, 
painted and gaily decorated with plumes of white feathers, 
the warriors standing in rows, with bows and arrows in their 
hands, the chieftains sitting under awnings as magnificent as 
the artless manufacturers of the natives could weave, came 



DE SOTO. 153 

rowing down the stream in a fleet of two hundred canoes, 
seeming to the admiring Spaniards 'like a fair army of gal- 
leys.' They brought gifts of fish, and loaves made of the 
fruit of the persimmon. At first they showed some desire 
to offer resistance, but soon becoming conscious of their weak- 
ness, they ceased to defy an enemy who could not be over- 
come. The boats of the natives were too weak to transport 
horses. Almost a month expired before barges large enough 
to hold three horsemen each, were constructed for crossing 
the river. At length, the Spaniards embarked upon the Mis- 
sissippi and were borne to the western bank." 

Believing that there were rich kingdoms avid mineral 
wealth to the northwest, De Soto spent the summer explor- 
ing the region now known as northern Arkansas and south- 
ern Missouri. Plumbs, grapes, mulberries and nuts were 
found, and the sword-fish and other strange fish in the riversi 
but neither gems nor gold, and to the north the country was 
found to be a wilderness but thinly settled. Turning south- 
ward in the autumn, they crossed the Arkansas, passed 
through the Hot Springs region and pitched their winter 
camp in a village upon the Washita. There was plenty of 
venison and other game, besides corn and vegetables furnished 
by the Indians. This third winter they spent in tolerable 
comfort, and in the spring, followed the river to its junction 
with the Mississippi. De Soto was now fully discouraged. 
After all their wanderings, battles and sufferings, nothing 
had been gained, while his men Avere reduced in numbers, 
wretchedly clad, and disheartened. After learning by inquiry 
and by sending out scouts to the south, that the lower course 
of the river was marshy, and toward the mouth uninhabited, 
he was still more sad. De Soto had spent his whole fortune 
upon this expedition, and now it was clear that there was no 
rich kingdom for him to conquor. Completely broken in his 
hopes, he was attacked by a fever which increased till it was 
evident that his death was near. Calling his companions, he 
appointed Moscoso as his successor, and died the next day. 



154 DE SOTO. 

At midnight, a few of his faithful men entered a boat with 
his body, and having reached the middle of the deep current, 
sunk it to rest in the bottom of the stream. The historian 
says: "The wanderer had crossed a large part of the conti- 
nent in search of gold, and found nothing so remarkable as 
his burial j)lnce." 

Those of his followers who were left, about three hun- 
dred in number, first marched toward the west, attempting 
to reach Mexico by land and still hoping to find some rich 
province to plunder. But the Indians were hostile, and up- 
on reaching the Red river, it was found impassable, so they 
turned their steps back to the Mississippi. They had de- 
termined to build boats, descend the Mississippi and pass 
through the gulf, to Mexico. "But it Avas no easy task for 
men in their condition to build brigantines. Erecting a 
forge, they struck off the fetters from the slaves; and gather- 
ing every scrap of iron in the camp, they wrought it into 
nails. Timber was sawed by hand with a large saw, which 
they had always carried with them. They calked their ves- 
sels with a weed like hemp. Barrels capable of holding 
water, were with difficulty made. To obtain supplies of pro- 
visions, all the hogs and even the horses were killed and 
their flesh preserved by drying; and the neighboring town- 
ships of Indians were so plundered of their food that the 
miserable inhabitants would come about the Spaniards, beg- 
ging for a few kernels of their own maize, and often died 
from weakness and want of food. The rising of the Missis- 
sippi assisted the launching of the seven brigantines. They 
were frail barks, which had no decks, and as, from the want 
of iron, the nails were of necessity short, they were con- 
structed of very thin planks, so that any severe shock Avould 
have broken them to pieces. Thus provided, after a passage 
of seventeen days, the fugitives, on the eighteenth of July 
reached the Gulf of Mexico." [Bancroft.] In September, 
after about fifty days sail westward along the coast of the 
Gulf, they came t > a Spanish settlement at Pauuco. 



LA SALLE's trip DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 155 



LA SALLE'S TRIP DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI 



[authority: parkman's la salle.J 



La Salle had sent Hennepin and two other Frenchmen to 
explore the upper Mississippi. He had also left Tonty, with 
fifteen men, to build a large boat for a trip down the river, 
and to hold Fort Creve Coeur till his return. But while La 
Salle was absent on his long journey to Fort Frontenac, two 
things had happened which brought ruin, for a time, upon 
all his plans. While he was at Fort Frontenac, gathering 
supplies and men for the trip to the mouth of the Mississip- 
pi, Tonty had been unfortunate. During his absence a few 
days on a trip up the river to Starved Piock, the men who 
were left at Fort Creve Coeur had stopped work on the boat, 
deserted the fort, taking with them such goods, furs and 
ammunition as they could carry, and then scattered in parties 
to hunt and trade for themselves among the Indians. 

After this Tonty, with four men who were still faithful, 
decided not to remain at Fort Creve Coeur, but gathered the 
remaining supplies and tools and went to spend the time till 
La Salle's return, at the great Illinois town near Utica, on the 
north bank of the Illinois river. While anxiously waiting 
for La Salle, the great village was startled with the news 
that an army of Iroquois, five hundred strong, was rapidly 
marching against the Illinois, and the next day it appeared 
on the south side of the river. The Illinois warriors now 



156 LA SALLE's trip down the MISSISSIPPI. 

surrounded Tonty, accused him of being a secret friend of 
the Iroquois, and fiercely threatened to kill him. But Tonty, 
who had only one hand, replied that he and the other 
Frenchmen were ready to go out with the Illinois to battle 
against the Iroquois. Both sides now prepared for the bat- 
tle. Screeching, dancing, yelling, and shooting off their 
guns, the two armies aj^proached each other on the plain to 
the south of the river. Although the battle had really begun, 
Tonty, seeing that the Iroquois, being more numerous and 
better fighters, were sure to gain the victory, marched forward 
between the two armies, taking a wampum belt as a flag of 
truce. Facing the Iroquois' guns, he soon found himself 
surrounded by the screeching Iroquois warriors. One of 
them struck at his breast with a dagger, inflicting a deep 
wound; one seized his hair from behind as if about to scalp 
him; one chief demanded that he be burned at the stake. 
But though wounded and bleeding he was not killed, and the 
Iroquois at last listened to his words. He told them that they 
should not attack the Illinois, who were the friends and allies 
of the Governor of Canada, that there were twelve hundred 
Illinois warriors and sixty well-armed Frenchmen in the 
Illinois camp, and they would better make peace. 

The Iroquois, seeing the Illinois acting very braA'ely, and 
half believing Tonty's words, now sent him back with a belt 
of peace. He had succeeded at least in preventing the bat- 
tle. But the Iroquois were only waiting for a better oppor- 
tunity to attack their enemies, As the Illinois warriors 
re-crossed the river in boats, some of the Iroquois followed 
them and hovered around the village. The Illinois, feeling 
it unsafe to remain longer, set fire to their houses and jump- 
ing into their canoes, retreated to an island down the river, 
where they had already concealed their wives, children and 
goods. Tonty tried several times after this to make peace 
between the two savage armies, but was only partly success- 
ful, and finding himself feared and hated by both tribes, he 
and his companions embarked in a leaky canoe and started 



LA SALLE's trip DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 157 

toward Green Bay by way of the Chicago portage and Lake 
Michigan. After great hardships, almost starving by the way, 
living on nuts, wild onions, and such corn and game as they 
could get, they reached the town of a friendly tribe on Green 
Bay. [The Potawatamies. ] 

In the late fall when La Salle returned to the valley of 
the Illinois, he found the great Indian village in ruins, and 
the Illinois tribes fled from the whole valley. Anxious to 
learn the fate of Tonty, he passed down the entire length of 
the Illinois to its mouth, but could find no trace. The 
Iroquois had burnt the huts, destroyed the supplies of corn, 
and driven the Illinois in terror from all the settlements 
along the river. At the beginning of winter, La Salle and 
his men returned to Fort Miami, at the mouth of the St. 
Joseph river. All his plans had been ruined and even Tonty 
had not been heard from. But La Salle was not a man to be 
discouraged, even by great misfortunes. He resolved first to 
form a great confederacy of all the western tribes against the 
Iroquois. La Salle, and the French, were to be tlie friends 
of all the western Indians, and to assist them should they 
ever be attacked again by the Iro(piois. In this way, La 
Salle would be able also to get control of the whole fur trade 
of the Indian tribes in Michiga)i, Wisconsin, Illinois and 
Indiana. For this purpose, during the winter, he held coun- 
cils with the chiefs of many Indian tribes, persuading them 
to join with him and the Illinois in forming a union against 
the Iroquois. Having received news that some of the Iro- 
quois warriors were at the portage of the St. Joseph, and 
that they were conducting themselves boastfully and inso- 
lently toward the Miamis and the Frencli, La Salle hastened 
to meet them and openly rebuked and threatened them, .so that 
they made no reply, but secretly crept away during the night. 
This greatly increased the confidence of the western Indian 
tribes in La Salle. In council also, he was very bold and 
eloquent, and had a wowerful influence over the warriors. 
In a great council held in tiie tent of the Miami chief. La 



158 LA SALLE'S trip down the MISSISSIPPI. 

Salle undertook to persuade the Miamis to join the Illinois, 
their old enemies. " He first began with a gift of tobacco to 
clear the brains of his listeners. Next he brought in a canoe- 
load of presents, cloths, coats, hatchets, beads, bells and 
trinkets. Praising one of their chiefs who had lately died. 
La Salle said he would bring him to life again, that is, he 
would take his name and give support to his squaws and 
children. When a huge pile of coats, shirts and hunting 
knives were placed before the Indians in proof of these 
words, the whole assembly exploded in yelps of admiration. 
'He who is my master, said La Salle, and the master of all 
this country, is a mighty chief, feared- by the whole world; 
but he loves peace, and the words of his lips are for good 
alone. He is called the King of France, and he is the 
mightiest among the chiefs beyond the water. It is his will 
that you make no war. You ought, then, to live in peace 
with your neighbors, the Illinois. Let us all obey the Great 
King and live together in peace, under his protection. Be of 
my mind, and use these guns that I have given you, not to 
make war, but only to hunt and to defend yourselves.' " The 
Miami were persuaded by these words. 

During this winter La Salle made a visit to the Illinois 
tribes, who had begun to return to their ruined homes along 
the river, after the departure of the Iroquois. He persuaded 
them also to join the coufederacj^ of the western Indians, 
promising himself to come and live among them, to furnish 
them with French goods and to buy their furs and skins. The 
Indians were well pleased. 

While among the Illinois, La Salle had heard of Tonty's 
safety at Green Bay, and returning to the lakes had a joyful 
meeting with him at Mackinaw, where the two men narrated 
to each other their experiences, and laid their plans for the 
future. 

La Salle's second great purpose was to explore the Mis- 
sissippi to its mouth, make settlements along the river and 
then ship his peltries down the stream, and by way of the gulf 



LA. SALLE'S TPvIP DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 159 

to France. To carry out this plan, he returned to Canada 
during the spring, and collected many boat loads of supplies. 
In the fall, with the deeply laden canoes, La Salle and his 
men made their way slowly along the shores of the great 
lakes, till in the late autumn they reached St. Joseph. Full 
preparations were made at St. Joseph for the journey to the 
mouth of the great river. La Salle had twenty-three French- 
men, and selected in addition eighteen trusty Lidians. The 
Indians insisted also on taking their squaws with them, ten 
in number, and three children, so that the whole party num- 
bered fifty-four. La Salle did not wait for spring to open, 
but on December twenty-first sent Tonty and Merabre with 
some of the men and six canoes, across Lake Michigan to 
where Chicago now stands. 

It was late in December when La Salle readied the mouth 
of the Chicago river, with the rest of the men and boats. 
"It was the dead of winter and the streams were frozen. 
They made sledges, placed on them tlie canoes, the baggage, 
and a disabled Frenchman, crossed from the Chicago to the 
northern branch of the Illinois, and filed in a long proces- 
sion down its frozen course." Below Lake Peoria they 
reached open water and embarked in their canoes, floated 
down the river, till, on the sixth of February tliP'y entered 
the Mississippi. The river was so full of floating ice that a 
week passed before they could continue their voyage. They 
reached the mouth of the Missouri towards evening and 
encamped in a neighboring forest. Three days after they 
passed the mouth of the Ohio, and on the twenty-fourth of 
February encamped near the Third Chickasaw Bluff. The 
hunters went out for game. "All returned except Pierre 
Prudhomme, and, as the others had seen fresh tracks of In- 
dians, La Salle feared that he was killed. While some of 
his followers built a small stockade fort on a high bluff by 
the river, others ranged the woods in search of the missing 
hunter. After six days of ceaseless and fruitless search, 
they met two Chickasaw Indians in the forest, and through 



160 LA SALLE'S TEIP DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 

theiu fLa Salle sent presents and peace-messages to that war- 
like pet pie, whose villages were a few days' journey distant. 
Several days later, Prudhomme was found and brought in to 
the camp, half dead. He had lost his way while hunting, 
and, to console him for his woes, La Salle christened the 
newly built fort with his name, and left him, with a few 
others, in charge of it." 

They embarked again and went on down the river. As 
they advanced the climate grew more and more spring-like. 
The air was warm, trees were budding and flowers opening. 
For several days they followed the winding course of the 
river through wastes of swamp and cahebrake. On the thir- 
teenth of March they found themselves wrapped in a fog so 
thick that neither shore could be seen. "They heard on the 
right the booming of an Indian drum and the shrill outcries 
of the war dance. La Salle at once crossed to the opposite 
side, where, in less than an hour his men threw up a rude 
fort of felled trees. Meanwhile the fog cleared, and from 
the farther bank, the astonished Indians saw the strange vis- 
itors at their work. Some of the French advanced to the 
edge of the water, and beckoned them to come over. Several 
of them approached, in a wooden canoe, to within the dis- 
tance of a gun-shot. La Salle displayed the calumet, and 
sent a Frenchman to meet them. He was well received, and, 
the friendly mood of the Indians being now apparent, the 
whole party crossed the river." The Indian town belonged 
to a tribe of the Arkansas, a people living near the mouth 
of the river which bears their name. They brought poles to 
the Frenchmen to build their huts, supplied them with fire- 
wood, and entertained them with dancing and feasting. La 
Salle took possession of the country in the name of the king" 
of France, raising a cross with great ceremony, to tlie ad- 
miration of gazing crowds of Indians, bearing the arms of 
France. 

After three days, the French continued their journey, 
guided by two of the Arkansas. They passed the sites of 



LA SALLE'S TRIP DOWN THE MISSISSIPPL 161 

Vicksburg and Grand Gnlf. About three hundred n^.es be- 
low the Arkansas, they stopped by the edge of a sWaiiip on 
the western side of the river, where, as the guides told them, 
was the path to the great town of the Taensas. Tonty, and 
a priest, were sent to visit it. "They and their men, should- 
ered their birch canoe through the swamp, and launched it 
on a lake which had once formed a portion of the channel of 
the river. In two hours they reached the town; and Tonty 
gazed at it with astonishment. He had seen notiiing like it 
in America; large square dwellings, built of sun-baked mad, 
mixed with straw, arched over with a dome-shaped roof of 
canes. Two of them were larger and better than the rest; 
one was the lodge of the chief, the other the temple of the 
sun. They entered the former and found a single room, forty 
feet square, where, in the dim light — for there was no open- 
ing but the door- -the chief sat, awaiting them on a sort of 
bedstead, three of his wives at his side, while sixty old men, 
wrapped in white cloaks, woven of mulberry bark, formed 
his council. When he spoke, his wives howled to do him 
honor. He received the visitors graciously, and joyfully ac- 
cepted the gifts which Tonty laid before him." In the temple 
were kept the bones of departed chiefs. Within burned a 
sacred fire, which was always kept burning, and the room 
was full of smoke. The people were worshipers of the sun. 
On a mud wall surrounding the temple, upon which stakes 
were planted, were stuck the skulls of enemies who had l^eeu 
saciificed to the sun. It was believed that their chiefs de- 
scended from the sun and tliey were worshiped as divine. 
Lower down the river, a village of the Natches was visited, 
who were also sun-worshipers. Farther down the river, some 
of the tribes were hostile, but La Salle refused to fight with 
them and kept on toward the mouth, which they soon reached. 
On the sixth of April they found the river dividing into three 
broad channels; La Salle followed one, Tonty another and one 
of the other leaders the third, till they reached tlie salt waters 
of the gulf, where the three parties came together again. 



162 LA SALLE'S trip down the MISSISSIPPI. 

A short distance above the mouth of the river all the 
men assembled upon a dry spot of ground. Here La Salle 
caused a column to be raised, hymns were sung and La Salle, 
among other things, proclaimed in a loud voice, " Li the 
name of Louis the Great, king of France, I do take posses- 
sion of this country of Louisiana, the seas, harbors, ports, 
bays, straits, and all the nations, peoples, provinces, cities, 
towns, villages, mines, minerals, fisheiies, streams and rivers, 
within the extent of said Louisiana, from the mouth of the 
river Ohio, as also along the Mississippi, and the rivers 
which discharge themselves into it from its source beyond 
the country of the Sioux, as far as its mouth at the Gulf of 
Mexico." The people shouted "Long live the king," volleys 
of musketry were fired. A cross was raised beside the col- 
umn, and a leaden plate was buried in the earth near by with 
an inscription in Latin which said, "Louis the Great reigns." 

La Salle and his party were the first white men to go 
from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi. He 
had not only discovered the mouth of the river, but proved 
that it would be possible to reach France by going down to 
the gulf. Turning the boats up the stream, the explorers 
made their way slowly back to Illinois. They were destitute 
of food, mur-h of the time having little but the flesh of alli- 
gators. Landing to procure supplies, they were once at- 
tacked by the Indians, but La Salle kept his men ready for 
battle and drove back the assailants. La Salle himself was 
taken very sick, and was compelled to stop at Fort Prudhomme 
for many days, till the fever left him. He says: "On the 
way back I was attacked by a deadly disease, which kept me 
in danger of my life for forty days, and left me so weak that 
I could think of nothing for four months longer." Sending 
Tonty on before, he followed as soon as his strength would 
permit, and meeting him again at Mackinaw, made arrange- 
ments to carry out the plan of forming a confederacy of the 
western Indians. Reports came also that the Iroquois were 
preparing for another expedition against the western tribes. 



LA SALLE'S trip DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 103 

La Salle had decided to build a fort among the Illinois 
on what is now called Starved Rock, asteepblutf on the south 
bank of the Illinois river not far from the great Illinois 
town, near the present city of Ottawa. This was to be a fort, 
trading post and the headquarters of the French and In- 
dians of the west. Tonty was sent with as many men as 
possible to begin the work. "The cliff called 'Starved Rock' 
rises, steep on three sides as a castle wall, to the height of a 
hundred and twenty-five feet above the river. In front it 
overhangs the water that washes its base; its western brow 
looks down on the tops of forest trees below, and on the east 
lies a wide gorge or ravine choked with the mingled foliage 
of oaks, Avalnuts, and elms; while in its rocky depths a little 
brook creeps down to mingle with the river. From the trunk 
of the stunted cedar that leans forward from the brink, you 
may drop a plummet into the river below, where the cat-fish 
and the turtles may plainly be seen gilding over the wrinkled 
sands of the clear and shallow current. The cliff is accessi- 
ble only from behind, where a man may climb up, not with- 
out difiiculty, by a steep and narrow passage. The top is 
about an acre in extent. Here, in the month of December, 
La Salle and Tonty began to entrench themselves. They 
cut away the forest that crowned the lock, built storehouses 
and dwellings, dragged timber up the rugged pathway and 
encircled the summit with a palisade." They called the fort 
St. Louis. 

The Illinois and many other Indian tribes, had pitched 
their tents in the valley below, in sight of Fort St. Louis. 
They depended upon the French for protection against the 
Iroquois. La Salle reported that twenty thousand Indians 
had come to dwell near the fort, depending upon his prom- 
ises, and they were able to muster four thousand warriors. 
His plan of forming the confederacy of western Indians had 
been a great success. 



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